Benhour Sargezian Khezerabad has been looking for a care center for his grandmother for several months. It has been difficult to find a service that could accommodate his grandmother’s needs as she has experienced isolation during the pandemic, especially after the recent death of her husband.

Khezerabad explained that she is also not yet ready to be registered into a nursing home, so the search for accommodating services became even more difficult.

“There's a big difference between being healthy mentally versus healthy physically,” Khezerabad explained. “It's not that she's physically unhealthy, it's mostly emotionally. She's lonely.”

Luckily, families like Khezerabad’s may have found the perfect balance with the brand-new Turlock Adult Day Care Center located at the Assyrian American Civic Club. The care center had its grand opening on Wednesday to introduce their services to community members.

Administrator Melina Lewis was essential in the process of making the care center a reality. She explained how the services provided can make a positive impact on Turlock’s elderly community.

“This is the first of its kind. There is nothing like it in our area,” Lewis said. “The health of our most vulnerable population really depends on these bridging programs. Oftentimes, they end up in a nursing home where they prematurely go to a skilled nursing environment because there was nothing in the middle sort of helping them. This prevents them from declining quickly.”

Janet Moshedian of the civic club helped found the new center and expressed her joy regarding the center’s grand opening.

“I’m really thankful,” Moshedian said. “For most places, seniors don’t have much to do for fun. It is our job to provide some good services to our community.”

These services include nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, social services, transportation assistance, meals, and several activities including bingo, dance, cards, pool and more.

Club member and former president Sam David was a major supporter of the project. He explained how the services can help community members.

“It's a process getting the state licensing, having everything proper, and then obviously Covid threw a little bit of a wrench in the whole thing,” David explained. “Earlier this year, we were able to go through all of the inspections and approvals taken care of. But we made it through. We're glad that if it's finally coming through for Turlock.”

Turlock Mayor Amy Bublak was also in attendance for the center’s grand opening and shared her gratitude towards the project.

“On behalf of Turlock, we’re always excited to see people creatively finding solutions to issues,” Bublak said. “When people come together and realize that they can help some other way and utilize the resources they have, it’s great for the community… It’s so exciting for our city.”

More information can be found at www.TurloclkADHC.com or by calling (209)-250-0995.