Adult Day Care Around Columbia: Every Licensed Center and How to Choose

What adult day care does

An adult day center offers a supervised weekday with meals, activities, social contact and, at many centers, health monitoring and help with medications. Participants go home each evening. For a parent who is safe at night but should not be alone all day, it can delay a move by months or years, and it gives the family caregiver a predictable working day.

South Carolina licenses adult day care through DPH, and each license states the number of participants the center may serve.

Every licensed center in the Midlands

Source: S.C. DPH Find a Facility license data as of November 6, 2026.

What it costs and who pays

CareScout's 2025 South Carolina median for adult day health care five days a week is $18,720 a year, about $1,560 a month, the least expensive paid option in the survey. Many families use two or three days a week, which cuts that figure proportionally.

Community Choices pays for adult day health care for eligible Medicaid members at nursing facility level of care, and PACE participants in Richland and Lexington attend the PACE center. Long-term care insurance policies often cover adult day care as well.

Choosing a center

Visit on an ordinary weekday and stay through lunch. Watch whether participants are engaged or parked in front of a television, how staff speak to people with dementia, and how medications and toileting are handled. Ask about transportation, because a long daily van ride can tire a frail participant, and ask whether a nurse is on site.

Ask whether the center is an enrolled Community Choices provider if Medicaid may help, and how it communicates with families about the day.

Getting through the first weeks

Many participants resist at first. Starting with two or three days a week, arriving at the same time each day and keeping the first visits short help a new routine settle. Staff experienced with dementia will have strategies; ask what they recommend.

If a parent still struggles after several weeks, consider in-home help instead. Some people with dementia do better without the change of setting.

Combining adult day care with other help

Adult day care works best as one piece of a plan. A common Midlands arrangement is three days a week at a center, a licensed in-home care aide for two or three hours on the other weekday mornings, home-delivered meals, and family on weekends. Another is adult day care plus Community Choices respite, which gives the main caregiver a few days off every few months.

If a parent has PACE, the PACE center fills this role and includes medical care, therapy and transportation. Outside Richland, Lexington and Calhoun counties, the Area Agency on Aging can help put the pieces together.

Whatever the mix, write the weekly schedule down and share it with everyone involved, including the center. When a parent's needs change, the schedule shows quickly where the gaps are.