What Makes Us Unique
A national model, Alzheimer's Family Services Center is a state-of-the-art center, where families can access direct care, education, and support services. Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian has played an important role in the life of Alzheimer's Family Services Center since its inception in 1980. The Reverend Bob Parry, then chaplain at Hoag, was among the founders who created AFSC in response to the growing community need for care of persons with Alzheimer's disease or another dementia. In 1995, this relationship deepened, as Hoag developed the Department of Community Medicine, an arm of the hospital specifically created to promote community health.
In 1996, when AFSC lost one of the two closed school sites where day services were being provided, Hoag stepped in to cover the cost of transporting displaced participants. A short time later, when AFSC learned it would also lose its second site, Hoag jumped in to ensure that this community would continue to have affordable, dementia-specific day services. In 1999, Hoag built the state-of-the-art facility located in Huntington Beach which provides a secure, homelike setting for AFSC's adult day health care program and a base of operations for our extensive education and outreach services. Hoag provides this facility, along with other resources, to AFSC as an in-kind donation. Additionally, Hoag generously provides financial support, along with many other donors and friends, making it possible for AFSC to offer adult day health care at affordable fees, and many other services, such as support groups and educational seminars, at no cost. With this support, AFSC has grown to reach nearly 10,000 people annually through its adult day health care, caregiver support, education, and outreach services.
Hoag established the Neurosciences Institute to serve patients across the spectrum of neurological disorders, including dementia. To achieve this goal, Hoag is strengthening its partnership with AFSC . For persons with dementia, the center serves as a bridge from hospital-based acute care and the physician's office to the community-based services critical for continuing care at home, particularly as cognitive impairment worsens, dependence increases, and difficult-to-manage behaviors such as wandering emerge.
AFSC is proud of this longstanding relationship with Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian and our affiliation with the Hoag Neurosciences Institute.
Through a partnership with the University of California, Irvine Institute for Brain Aging & Dementia, the center has ready access to expert professionals and cutting-edge research.
Alzheimer's Family Services Center is the only agency in the county with the capacity to offer specialized day services for people in all stages of Alzheimer's, plus the support and education caregivers need.
