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Senior Day Program about to close
Dozens of angry and emotional residents turned out Tuesday at the Prince William Board of County Supervisors meeting in a last-ditch attempt to keep the Manassas Senior Day Care program open.Supervisors voted unanimously in April to close the Manassas program that provides day care services to elderly residents, many of whom are disabled or who suffer from dementia. The day care program allows full-time caregivers – generally children or spouses – to work during the day or just to run errands or get a break.
But county budget documents indicate the county will save $233,169 in the coming year by closing the day care program and instead farming out the participants to Hearth and Home, a private day care program operated by Manassas Baptist Church.
The county program currently serves only 26 people, though not all attend every day.
Courtney Tierney, head of the Area Agency on Aging, said Tuesday that social workers have been helping all of the participants and their families to relocate to other programs. In addition, state grants have been obtained to help pay for relocation expenses, such as application fees and the cost of physicals.
Hearth and Home has agreed to take the county participants at something similar to the rates the seniors pay for the county program, but because the county program has a sliding scale for fees, not everyone has been paying the same amount. Some who spoke at citizens’ time on Tuesday said their cost will rise significantly when they switch to Hearth and Home.
Tierney said that of the 26 participants, five have shifted to the county’s Woodbridge program, which is still open. Two others are on the waiting list there. Four are going to Hearth and Home, three will be cared for in their homes, two are moving and one will enter a nursing home. The rest, she said, are still undecided.
“We cannot force people to make a decision and we cannot force them to tell us their plans,” she said.
Though the supervisors refused to consider citizen requests to change their stance and refund the Manassas program, they did assure residents that the Woodbridge Senior Day Care program will remain open.
“There is no intention whatsoever to close that center,” said Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart. “There is no private alternative on the eastern end.”
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