The owner of a new for-profit adult day-care center in Mead says she hopes the venture will become an option for people who are looking for care, community involvement, and activities for their elderly parents, while also giving caregivers here a chance to have a break.

Renee Rinderknecht, owner and director of the facility, All Families Adult Day Care Center, says she got the idea to launch the business while searching for a place for her mother to stay during the day when she moves to Spokane from Iowa soon to live with Rinderknecht.

"What we wanted was for our mom to be part of our family and to live in our home," says Rinderknecht, who also works as an educational specialist for Mead School District. With both her and her husband working, however, she knows she will need a place for her mother to be during the day, Rinderknecht says.

Her mother has mild dementia, so Rinderknecht says she wouldn't have been able to leave her home alone. With high function and reasonably good health in other regards, however, her mother doesn't need some of the more intensive services frequently provided at day health centers, including the services of a registered nurse or licensed rehabilitation specialist, Rinderknecht says.

Additionally, she says, space has become increasingly scarce at day health centers because of reduced state funding. She says she hopes All Families, which opened in September and so far has just a few drop-in clients, will offer another alternative for seniors who don't have intensive medical needs.

Rinderknecht asserts that All Families currently is the only private, for-profit adult day center east of the Cascade Mountains approved to accept clients who qualify for reimbursement for their care.

There are two other nonprofit centers in the Spokane area, according to the state Aging & Disability Services Administration.

Rinderknecht says All Families also is offering extended hours, including possibly evenings and special activities from 6:30 to 9 p.m. on Saturdays, called "senior nights," several times a month. Senior nights might include movies or other activities and are designed to provide occasional respite for caregivers, as well as social opportunities for clients, she says.

The facility occupies a former Montessori school building that All Families has leased at 13111 N. Boston Road, just north of Farwell Road and Market Street, in Mead. It has about 985 square feet of space inside, enough for a maximum of 14 clients, though Rinderknecht says the program likely will serve no more than 12 people on any given day.

The building is located on a three-acre fenced property and includes a small organic orchard and garden space that Rinderknecht says the program will use for outdoor activities in the spring and summer.

Prices will range from $10 to $15 an hour for private-pay clients, depending on how many hours a client is there, she says. Drop-in care, for which a person must call ahead, will cost $15 an hour. She says the center also plans to offer packages that could include a certain number of days of care, plus a special event such as a seniors' night, and will sell gift certificates for those activities, too.

In addition, the center offers a free monthly support group for caregivers, she says.

The business employs three staff members in addition to Rinderknecht, including a recreational therapist and two people she says have completed the coursework required for qualification as a nurse's aide. It also will use the services of a consulting social worker, she says. Rinderknecht says lunch will be provided by the center, either through a meal service for the elderly or with food prepared by staff members, who all will have food handlers' permits.

Rinderknecht says she's worked out arrangements with a transportation organization named Special Mobility Services and with Spokane Transit Authority to help transport clients to and from the center if they need that service.

All Families has an advisory board made up mostly of professional women here, and Rinderknecht says she has applied for Washington state woman-owned business status.

Rinderknecht, who has worked as an educational specialist in the public school system for 29 years, doing assessments and educational programming with families of children who have any of 13 different handicapping conditions, will develop individual care plans for each regular client, she says. She is at the center each morning to open its doors at 7, and at closing time, at 5:30 p.m. She says she plans to continue working at Mead School District near the center.

Rinderknecht says the facility is equipped to handle wheelchairs, and can take clients who have mild dementia. It is approved to provide services for individuals who qualify for reimbursement for their care under a Washington state Department of Social and Health Services program called community options program entry system (COPES), which helps pay for care for people who could qualify to live in a nursing center but choose to remain at home.

Under its license, the center can prompt clients to take medications but doesn't administer them, Rinderknecht says.

Rinderknecht says people can schedule their visits to the new center flexibly. Clients who receive state-paid care, for example, typically would come to a day center for four hours a day. Meanwhile, other people might come one or two days a week, depending on their needs and what their family feels is appropriate and affordable. Others might come just for senior nights, or on a drop-in basis.

The schedule on a typical day includes a morning stretch, a game of bingo or arts and crafts time, a book club meeting or activity such as card games, and an afternoon walk. In the spring and summer, Rinderknecht also plans to provide outdoor activities such as gardening, and might have youth volunteers come in to play music and do other intergenerational activities with clients.

The facility is set up much like a home. It's equipped with a number of reclining chairs in a living room and an open kitchen with a table. It also has an organ, a record player with a collection of old records, and a quiet room where a client can rest. Tincan, a Spokane nonprofit organization, is installing three computers at the center, Rinderknecht says, and she's buying a television, but plans to use it primarily for movie nights.