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  • Jan Harper, Ada Senior Care Center, visits with a client at the facility. Richard R. Barron

    Caring with care
October 21, 2011

Keeping good company

Justin Lofton Staff Writer The Ada News

Ada — Ada Senior Care Center (ASCC) Interim Director Jan Harper said the conversation makes her job worth doing.

“To spend my day talking to my friends is a dream job,” Harper said.

ASCC is a not-for-profit day care for seniors and adults in the Ada area.

“It’s for people who aren’t ready for the nursing home yet but they can’t stay home alone for whatever reason,” Harper said.

Despite its name, Harper said the center accepts any client over 18 that can basically take care of themselves with assistance.

For that assistance, ASCC employs four staff members.

Harper and Jill Welch are the center’s Licensed Practical Nurses, Ellen Green is a Certified Nurse Aide and Angie Davilla is the center’s hostess.  Harper was program director at the center until Donna Rodebush, executive director and 13-year veteran at the center, resigned.

“We’re sort of sharing jobs right now until we get everything settled,” she said.

ASCC currently takes care of approximately seven or eight clients per day, although 13 are enrolled, because clients don’t attend the same days.  The center has a capacity of 16.

“We try to stay active during the day,” she said.  “We have games that stimulate the mind and the body.”

Daycare clients also participate in exercises and discuss various topics throughout the day.

“We try to just talk about good things,” she said.  “People can get really upset.”

The center began in March 1988 and is located at First Presbyterian Church on King’s Road.

Harper will have been with the program for three years in December.

She said she began when Rodebush invited her to fill in for an employee that would be away.

Harper was recently unemployed and jumped at the opportunity.

“The minute I walked in I was hooked,” she said.

As interim director, Harper does billing, book work, grocery shopping and various other tasks to keep the center running.

She said she enjoys her job and hopes to remain at ASCC until she retires.

Several of ASCC’s board of directors’ loved ones have first-hand experience with the center.

Tom Cooper, a board member, said having his mother-in-law in the care of Ada Senior Care Center delayed placing her in a nursing home for two years.

Linda Roark, another member, said her mother attended the care center for two years.

“I don’t know what we would have done without the center,” Roark said.  “More people need to know about its services.  My mom was so different when she started going to the center. She was happy.”

To learn more, visit www.adaseniorcare.com or call (580) 332-2855.

(Brenda Tollett, Associate Editor, contributed to this story)

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