Creative Adult Day Center: It’s A Gift

How do you attract a crowd to your adult day care center? Don’t make it look like one.

USA Today contributor Gladys Edmunds, curiously found The Orion Generations Wellness Center, when she first mistook it for a gift shop. "I was greeted both by the relaxing and soothing aroma of essential oils and two friendly people," wrote Edmunds. These two people were Daimon, the store manager, and Carin Constantakis, the owner.

After working as director of nursing for a nursing home owned by a large corporation in the early 90’s, Constantakis said she felt disillusioned by its impersonal nature. In 1995, she embarked upon a mission to create her own version of what assisted living for the elderly should look like. It was with this purpose, a certain kind of care she felt only she could provide, that she bought a home and turned it in to something that resembles more of a bed-and-breakfast than an adult day care.

"When a person is forced, by age or illness, to make the transition from their homes into a nursing home or assisted living facility, that facility should look and feel as close to home as possible," Constantakis told the columnist.

After several years, Constantakis expanded her facilities into both a child day care and a personal home care business. "The center she started there was something the community desperately needed," wrote Edmunds.

A licensed inter-generational practitioner and entrepreneur, Constantakis channels her passion for providing care into an array of integrative programs for local children and seniors, and a thriving business that includes a gift and wellness shop.

Edmunds, who writes a column called Entrepreneurial Tightrope, mentioned in her article that she isoften asked by readers how they can bring more humanitarian principles into their enterprises. With Constantakis’s Orion Generations Wellness Center, "I found someone who has nailed the concept of combining a business with a community service."

For more information on Carin Constantakis, e-mail carin@oriongenerations.com.

Address: Orion Generations, 4361 William Flynn Highway, Allison Park, PA 15101; (412) 213-3500, www.oriongenerations.com.