From Vermont Public / By Nina Keck

[ NOTE: Nina Keck’s story appeared on Vermont Public on March 13, and also was picked up by National Public Radio, airing nation-wide on March 21. Links to the Vermont Public and NPR versions of the story are below; at both sites, you can listen in or read a transcript. ]

If you’re a new parent trying to get back to work, you know how challenging it is to find affordable day care.

On the other end of the life spectrum, programs that support older adults and provide daytime respite for caregivers are even harder to find.

In Vermont there are only 11, and proposed cuts to Medicaid could exacerbate the shortage.

Kristin Bolton is executive director of Elderly Services Inc. in Middlebury, which runs Project Independence, an adult day program that started more than 40 years ago in a church basement. She says a lot of Vermonters don’t know these programs exist until they need them.

“When all of a sudden it’s time that Mom can’t or Dad can’t be independent anymore, or your husband or wife or partner is not acting the way they used to, and you feel alone, and the benefit of adult day is it provides a community,” Bolton says.

Bolton says their current facility on Exchange Street in Middlebury was built 20 years ago and specifically designed for their program. It’s cheerful and looks like an oversized farmhouse with lots of windows, meeting spaces and a wraparound porch. It’s open 12 hours a day Monday through Friday and currently serves about 150 people a year ranging in age from 50 to 100.

Read or listen to the whole story on Vermont Public …

The story also aired on March 21 on National Public Radio …