St Johns Healing Community Board

Adult day program- our adult day centers provide a safe, home-like environment where our clients, or as we call them, participants, can spend weekdays (6:30am- 6:00pm) in the company of trained caregivers and other participants. We provided 28,151 hours of care and socialization in 2022 to 83 clients in two locations - collinsville (since 2001) and edwardsville (since 2013). We keep participants active, entertained, and fed. Our staff nurses monitor their physical health and assure they take prescribed medications. Our art therapist works with participants dealing with negative emotions. Studies show that social interaction and relationships correlate with improved emotional and physical health. In the words of a participant, "they accept us the way we are and love us anyway."

Family caregiver support and training we provided savvy caregiver and stress busting classes as well as two support groups for caregivers and an early memory loss program. These were primarily virtual for continued safety of participants as we slowly worked to return to normal programming. We served 101 people through these programs during 2022. We also spoke to the public 9 times last year with 172 attendees hearing about the work we do medical equipment loan program we served over 400 people through this program and provided approximately 600 pieces of free medical equipment to individuals in need in 2022. Caregiver referral and information assistance we were able to add a new program this year through a new grant opportunity. Caregiver information and referral specialists can support caregivers in a whole new way, through an assessment that will help to prioritize needs and connect caregivers to necessary resources. They also offer emotional support and guidance through hard times. This program began in the fall and had only served around 10 people by the end of the year as the time was spent doing training and building capacity for the program.