Prakash and Bisnu Maya Adhikari live with their son and his family in Manchester.

Every morning, as the rest of the family heads out to work and school, the couple, 74 and 71, are often on their own.

It can be lonely, Prakash said. As he and his wife get older, their health needs are growing, and they rely on help from others for meals and medication.

Which is where Concord Adult Day Care comes in.

These days, the Adhikaris get picked up in the morning and brought to the center on Loudon Road. Their day includes a hot breakfast and lunch, games, fitness and crafts. It has spaces set aside for relaxation and meditation. Once a week, the Adhikaris have the option to take a class in English as a second language. This is all in addition to the medical support provided by licensed nursing assistant Lani Canabano.

The most exciting thing about the center opening, Prakash said, is the opportunity to spend the day with new people and grow their social circle.

Adult day service centers are one piece in the broader system of long-term care for seniors. They’re non-residential spaces, serving older people who need some help with daily activities but not round-the-clock care. This often means people who live with family members or who live on their own with a part-time caregiver. In addition to meeting the medical needs of clients, these centers bring together groups of adults from surrounding communities helping to combat social isolation. The Concord Adult Day Care is currently the only setting of this kind in the city after a similar facility closed in 2019.

Especially in situations where residential living isn’t an option, adult day service centers extend the amount of time seniors are able to live independently, lighten the workload of someone operating as a full-time caregiver or offer an alternative to family members leaving the workforce to provide daily care.

“We live in a fast-paced world and in our society, many older adults are left alone at home, vulnerable and isolated,” co-owner Suraj Budathoki said at the center’s grand opening. The staff’s mission “is to enhance the quality of life for older adults by providing a safe, engaging and compassionate environment that fosters well being, independence and social connections.”

Adult day centers are also the most racially diverse type of long-term care for seniors in the United States, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data and reporting by the Associated Press, with 60% of users identifying as people of color.

Budathoki and Rajesh Chauwan — the facility’s administrator and co-owner — said the adult day care is open to clients of any background. The center, located at 211 Loudon Road, is positioned within Concord’s most diverse neighborhood. In addition to offering English courses, the staff speaks a total of six languages, including Nepali and Hindi. Chauwan assisted the Adhikaris through Nepali translation in their interview with the Monitor.

Like those who often seek out the adult daytime care model, many of the staff come from cultural backgrounds that prioritize keeping older family members at the center of home and community life. It’s woven into the facility’s ethos.

“We value our elders, especially back home, and we always make sure that they’re comfortable and they’re still part of the family,” said Rosecel Arevalo, the activities director. “In here, we want to make sure that they feel at home and they feel that they never left their home.”

For Budathoki and Chauwan, who came to New Hampshire in 2009 as Bhutanese refugees, working in the senior human services field is also about giving back.

“We feel that it is our responsibility to support our community members who accepted us as refugees initially,” Budathoki said. “It’s giving back to the community who accepted us when we were nobody.”

The pair met through their involvement with the Bhutanese Community of New Hampshire, now named Building Community in New Hampshire. They both have experience overseeing senior care operations — including Bloom and Shine Services, a home-healthcare business that opened in 2018. Taking the step to open the day service center was simply a matter of recognizing the need, they said: A previous facility of this kind — in the same building — closed in 2018.

Pradip Karki came to the facility’s grand opening as a friend of Budathoki, but it’s something he can imagine his parents using one day.

“Sometimes we have work, kids. Sometimes we forget we have parents too,” said Karki, who lives in Penacook. “This will help them, help give them more happiness.”

For more information, go to concordadultdaycare.com.

 

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com. You can subscribe to her Concord newsletter The City Beat at concordmonitor.com.