This isn’t your typical day care.

The five-bedroom Lawrence home at 4300 Helianthus Drive looks like many other home-based, day-care operations. But this one cares for adults.

Nancy Mannucci, Eudora, opened The Oasis Adult Day Care Retreat last month. The business operates much like a traditional children’s day care. It is open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Mannucci and her three employees provide meals, activities and supervision for the up to eight adults who are generally dropped off by one of their children.

“These businesses aren’t real prevalent yet, but I think they will be,” Mannucci said.

That’s because more baby boomers are reaching retirement age. Combine that with the increasing costs of nursing homes, and Mannucci said adult day-care operations are a definite trend for the future.

“People aren’t going to be able to afford to put their loved ones in nursing home facilities,” she said.

Lowell Spirer, president of the Pennsylvania-based consulting firm Adult Day Care Group, estimated there are about 4,000 adult day-care homes in the country. His group estimated there were at least 100 new facilities opening each year.

“They’re really opening up all over the country,” Spirer said. “The growth rate is increasing every year.”

Kansas officials said there were eight licensed facilities that specialize in adult day care in Kansas, although that doesn’t count a number of nursing homes that provide adult day care in addition to traditional nursing home services, which include about four in Lawrence. The companies are licensed through the Kansas Department on Aging and must go through an inspection process similar to nursing homes. The state also determines how many people each facility can care for.

Nancy Mannucci, Eudora, has opened The Oasis Adult Day Care Retreat. Mannucci, a licensed nurse, was pictured Tuesday inside the business at 4300 Helianthus Drive.

Douglas County Senior Services also provides an adult day-care program in Lawrence.

Barbara Little, manager of the program, said she was glad to see another service open. She said the businesses were needed because they helped fill a gap in elder care.

But neither program has particularly caught on with the public. The senior center is licensed to serve 14 people per day, but normally serves five. On some days, like Tuesday, Mannucci’s facility is empty.

The Oasis and Douglas County Senior Services allow people to sign up for as little as a half day or a full week, although the senior services program is only open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday.

The Oasis charges $50 for a half day, $90 for a full day or $425 for a week. The senior center’s charges are based on the person’s income. Little said rates for people who had incomes of more than $860 per month were charged about $150 per day.

The Oasis is having an open house from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. today.