Day-care options for aging adults in Columbia are expanding.

The University of Missouri-Columbia School of Health Professions held an open house yesterday for its second adult day care, which provides participants with social interaction, exercise and some personal care.

Called Adult Day Connection, the center is in the city’s First Ward at The Intersection, 7 E. Sexton Road. It joins Eldercare, which is on the MU campus.

For many people, adult day care is a way to relieve caregivers during the day and delay or negate the necessity of moving a loved one to a nursing home.

The Adult Day Connection is licensed to take in 20 seniors a day, and the services are billed at the Medicaid rate of $52 a day. The MU location has 25 seniors.

Like Eldercare, the new center will also serve as a training ground for students, giving them practical experience in caring for aging adults.

Tish Thomas, administrative director of both centers, said several spots remain available at the new location. Priority is given to those 65 and older, and the center will likely feature a 6-to-1 participant-to-staff ratio.

Thomas said MU is renting The Intersection facilities during the day for $1,000 a month.

"We really wanted to reach out to central Columbia," she said. "Adult day-care choices are very important to people who want to stay as independent as possible."

At a short opening ceremony yesterday, U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, a Columbia Republican, said he’s witnessed firsthand the benefits of adult day care.

His mother-in-law, Ruby Howell, started attending Eldercare after a stroke and aneurysm impaired her activities more than three years ago.

"It caused a lot of turmoil to the family," Hulshof said. "Unless you’re thrust into that role, it’s difficult to understand all the angst that goes into that."

Eldercare, which features a 4-to-1 participant-to-staff member ratio, provides "loving, thoughtful and conscientious care," Hulshof said.

He said the new location is a move toward "perhaps reaching out to a community that didn’t have access to loving, thoughtful, conscientious care" for seniors.

Adult Day Connection comes online at the same time Boone Hospital Center is fundraising for its planned $6 million intergenerational center, which will provide care to 60 seniors and 104 children.

Although the MU centers offer some mixing between children and seniors, the Boone Hospital facility will offer more regular, integrated exchanges, said Jan Grossmann, who is leading the fundraising efforts to build Boone’s center.

Both centers are opening at a time that the senior population in Boone County is growing faster than in any other county in the state, Grossmann said.

Boone had initially approached MU about collaborating on its intergenerational project. "It just didn’t seem to be a good fit at the time, more so for the university than us," Grossmann said.