Fresh Takes: The Cost of Caregiving, Part 2
- Endowment for Health
- Jun 2
- 4 min read
Updated: 19 hours ago
Summer 2025
In this edition of Fresh Takes, we’re continuing to share stories about caregiving at every stage of life – from young children to older adults. We hope that this discussion can carry the conversation forward, and we are honored to feature the voices of people who work – on the ground and around the clock – to make New Hampshire a state where everyone is cared for, where everyone is heard, and where everyone belongs.
Guiding Care at the Mount Washington Valley Adult Day Center
Inside the Mount Washington Valley Adult Day Center, guests create art. Linda works on a block print. Marie works on a collage. Jerry paints a colorful sunset that, smirking, he titles “A Bad Saturday Night.” They sing together as they work, integrating music with their art: You Are My Sunshine, This Little Light of Mine.
The Center – located in Conway, New Hampshire – is a non-profit that provides care and resources for people with dementia and their caregivers. The Center is one of three New Hampshire providers selected to pilot a national program called Guiding an Improved Dementia Care Experience (GUIDE). The program, facilitated through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, helps pay for dementia care and caregiver respite as well as care coordination among medical providers. The GUIDE pilot will help expand adult day care coverage to 62 New Hampshire towns (up from 35) and serve an additional 63,000 people.
Lynn Coyle is the Director of the Center. She says that GUIDE will be crucial in providing care for the “whole family unit,” not just the individual with dementia. That includes caregivers and families, too. Those caregivers, she says, desperately need breaks from providing 24/7 care. They need time to care for themselves, to go grocery shopping, to have lunch with a friend. GUIDE will help provide that respite.
To implement GUIDE, the Adult Day Center has hired a full-time Care Navigator whose responsibilities include care planning and coordination, transitional care and management, and caregiver education and support. The Care Navigator will meet with patient families, both at the Center and in their homes.
Lisa Woodbury, Community Outreach Coordinator at the Center, says that the organization’s participation in the GUIDE program will make a huge difference in the supports that the Center can offer. “We support individuals and their family while they’re here,” she says, “and now, we can support them in their home.”
The Adult Day Center exemplifies expert care for people with dementia and their caregivers. One of many services offered is a salon and spa, a space where nursing staff provide spa amenities and a stylist – also a nurse – runs the salon. Guests can enjoy having their hair washed, cut, perms, manicures, pedicures, and soak in a reclining adaptable tub with jets. For family caregivers, the spa offers a much-needed break from the difficult tasks of bathing or scheduling salon visits. And for the nurses, it is a valuable opportunity to check for early signs of illness, like skin conditions or other concerns that might otherwise go unnoticed. It is this care that keeps guests healthy, happy, and out of the hospital. And here, they can be pampered.
Guest engagement is core to the center’s mission. By working with community program providers and volunteers, guests participate in yoga, dance, gardening, and art. By fostering intergenerational connections with local elementary schools, students and teachers visit the center to perform plays, dance recitals, and concerts for the guests.
At the end of the day, guests will reunite with their caregiver, they will have eaten a hot meal with friends, enjoyed yoga, painted, had physical activity, or planted flowers. And their caregivers will have had the time that they need and to recharge.
From the art room, a chorus of This Little Light of Mine pours into the hallway – a joyful reminder of the social connections fostered for Center guests.
The GUIDE program aims to enhance the quality of life for individuals with dementia and lessen the strain on their caregivers by coordinating the proper care and resources. The GUIDE Model will include 24/7 access to a support line and caregiver training, education, and support services. This approach will allow people with dementia to remain safely in their homes for longer by preventing or delaying nursing home placement and improving the quality of life for both them and their unpaid caregivers. Learn more by vising the Center for Medicaid Services explainer of the GUIDE program.
Resources
If you live an hour or more away from a person who needs care, you are a long-distance caregiver. This kind of care can take many forms — from helping with money management and arranging for in-home care to providing respite care for a primary caregiver and planning for emergencies. With advance planning and organizing, caregivers can still provide support and assistance despite being long-distance. Watch the video below for a few tips for long-distance caregiving, or read more about long-distance caregiving here.
Caregivers Needed for Alzheimer’s and Dementia Research
Aging and Disability Resource Centers | New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services
How are older adults living and aging in communities across New Hampshire? Explore the New Hampshire Healthy Aging Data Report: New Hampshire Healthy Aging Data Report | Healthy Aging Data Reports
Tri-State Learning Collaborative on Aging Dementia and Care Partners Library Shelf
Portraits of Caregiving in the U.S.: The National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) is focused on translating the lived experience of caregivers into policy and innovation efforts to build health, wealth, and equity for America’s 53 million family caregivers. As part of this work, NAC has created a hub that showcases the stories of caregivers across the country to increase the visibility of Caregiving in the U.S. – the joys, challenges, and opportunities associated with caregiving. Click here to learn more or submit a story.