Cuts in state and federal funds are straining the financial resources of Just Friends Adult Day Services and could begin to severely limit who among the frail population gets its structured care.

The issue is especially significant because Just Friends leaders say clients often have few other choices for trained, daytime supervision and medical care for an elderly parent or grandparent who cannot be left alone at home. Also, alternatives such as nursing home care are much more expensive and not quite needed yet by many families.

Just Friends, launched in 1987, offers daytime supervision, medical care and activities for adults who can not be left at home alone. The agency has seen a 70 percent decrease in Medicaid waiver payments between 2008 and 2011 and a 12 percent decline in U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs funding over the same period, according to figures provided by Marilyn Clerc, the nonprofit agency’s executive director.

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