ADULT CARE MAY CONTINUE OUTSIDE PROVIDER EXPRESSES AN INTEREST.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - With the popular Adult Day Health Center scheduled to close in days, leaving some 85 participants with few places to go, hospital officials said Friday that another provider has expressed an interest in helping clients.

Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital officials could offer no further details, but said they were hopeful the provider could step in. The center closes next week.

``A service provider has stepped forward and expressed an interest in helping participants,'' said hospital spokeswoman Lisa Foust.

``They've been working very hard to ensure there isn't an interruption in service. They still have some significant decisions to make.''

Foust would not name the provider or provide details of any possible plans for the facility.

Participants, including many disabled seniors who rely on the center for social interaction and care, held a pizza party Friday as the 11-year-old center prepared to close down.

Wednesday would be the final day at the center, which is slated for closure as part of cost-cutting measures to trim $5 million from the operating budget at the hospital.

The hospital announced last week that it would close seven outpatient programs and lay off 79 employees Feb. 1 to preserve core inpatient services at the cash-strapped facility.

Family members of participants - some of whom protested the closure when first announced - said they were counting on a new provider to step in.

``For our situation, with our mother, there's no other alternative in the valley,'' said Beverly Ruiz, whose mother, Opal Canning, 87, a widow and stroke victim, lives on her own but visits the adult day care program to interact with her peers.

``It was the opportunity to be out with others with her own problems, along with all that day care has to offer,'' she said.

``What this closure means is just that many more days watching TV for my mom.''

While the hospital has been trying to provide alternatives for those participating in the program, those involved said few options are available.

There is no comparable day care facility in the Santa Clarita Valley, said administrator/program director Linda Alexander-Lieblang. While others exist in the San Fernando Valley, participants would need to arrange transportation to attend.

The Senior Center in Santa Clarita is planning to take in about five clients, but its program cannot care for those with special medical needs, officials there said.

Alexander-Lieblang said she was hopeful a new service provider would step in and take over the program.

``This is a service the community really needs,'' she said. ``I would never want services to cease, that's the whole reason I'm here is to prevent people from going into nursing homes that don't need to. ... I don't want the participants to be displaced, that's my main priority right now.''

Foust said the hospital had been faced with difficult decisions in deciding which programs to cut. Hospital officials have said they cut stand- alone programs in hopes outside providers would step in and operate them.

Foust said she had heard that others could be interested in helping with adult day care, but so far has only been specifically in contact with the one service provider.

She was hopeful the service provider would be able to make its decisions in time to help participants.

``They recognize that they need to work quickly,'' she said.

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Photo:

(ran in SAC edition only) Ken Guyot, who has been attending Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial's Adult Day Health Center for two years, joins friends Friday for a pizza party before the facility closes down.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News