GAINESVILLE – The Guest House on Oak Street in Gainesville dedicated their new Hobby Shop and Garden Center Thursday afternoon, taking another step forward in their 30-plus year history of providing specialized daytime care for northeast Georgia’s older residents.
“A bunch of concerned people got together,” Guest House Executive Director Dana Chapman explained in reference to the organization’s 1985 origin, “and these women decided that there had to be a better way than going straight from your home to a nursing home, and they came up with the concept of day-care.”
“At that time the Weinstein Center in Atlanta…was the only place in this region that was doing day-care,” Chapman said. Chapman added that a visit to the Weinstein Center by the founding group soon led to the chartering of The Guest House as a 501c3 tax exempt charity.
Initially The Guest House opened across the street from Brenau University and served ten clients, two days per week for several hours each day. Today they are on Oak Street and growing.
“About forty-five,” Chapman responded when asked the number of clients currently being served at The Guest House; “per day fifteen to nineteen.” At present services are available from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The newly-constructed, approximately 400-square-feet Hobby Shop and Garden Center will be used for therapeutic purposes, joining Pet Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Music Therapy, Art Therapy, et al.
“I’ve seen an increase in the need to fill this niche, for day-care as an alternative to long-term care placement,” Chapman said, looking back at the years she has been a part of Guest House.
“And I’ve also seen a change in the diagnosis. Right now we are serving 100-percent dementia of all sorts,” Chapman said.
Chapman says transportation needs are met in several ways for their clientele. “They come on Hall Area Transit; we have a contract with them; we pay for that. We have a contract with the Gainesville Connection.” She added that in most cases family members arrange private transportation services catered to the needs of their loved ones.
Chapman said that in a similar fashion the Guest House has had to be creative and flexible when it comes to funding their $300,000 annual budget.
“We used to be, for a great long period of time, a Medicaid facility. We received Medicaid dollars (however) our board directed me to finally cut ourselves off from Medicaid in 2013 because it became a liability to the agency.”
“Medicaid was all about returning revenue to the state coffers that year, and they were picking the low-hanging fruit, of which we were one…so we were very much in jeopardy of continued punitive action by Medicaid,” Chapman explained.
“So what we did to make up for it when we turned off our Medicaid funding…our board of directors began a scholarship fund so that we could afford to help those people that are on Medicaid and pay for their care.”
And, as expected, reliance on the generosity of local businesses, volunteers, civic groups and donors is critical.
“It’s a very heartwarming experience for anyone that hasn’t tried it,” Sandra Martin of Gainesville said.
Martin began as a volunteer and now serves on The Guest House board of directors. “You can come over here and slave in the yard like I did Saturday,” she said with a laugh, “or you can come and spend thirty minutes singing with the clients.”
To learn more about helping The Guest House – either financially or by volunteering your time and expertise to the clients – contact Dana Chapman at (770) 535-1487.
