Karen Crusinbery spent last month trying to find an adult day care center where she could take her elderly mother.

The search was necessary because day care services at the Lawrence Senior Center, operated by Douglas County Senior Services, closed Oct. 1. It was a victim of county budget cuts.

“It’s hard. There just isn’t anything here in Lawrence,” Crusinbery said of trying to find another service or individual caregiver. “It was just a lot of calling and asking around.”

Crusinbery’s niece – her mother’s granddaughter – is now the caregiver while Crusinbery is at work.

Midland Care Services of Topeka is considering establishing a new adult day care center in Lawrence. It is conducting a feasibility study, and it has scheduled a public meeting and forum on the subject for Monday. It will be from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the senior center, 745 Vt.

“Our concerns are the families and the people in the community that desperately need a day care center for their loved ones,” said Lucas Houk, Midland’s community liaison representative.

The senior center’s day care service had room for a maximum of 14 people, but in recent years there had been an average of six to eight staying at various intervals during the day, senior services director John Glassman said.

“As is often the case, they (day care seniors) have children who are working but also have the responsibility of taking care of a parent,” Glassman said. “It was for giving a break to the caregiver and then secondly as an alternative to putting someone in a nursing home.”

Seniors in day care took part in games, arts and crafts and other projects. The cost for sending someone to day care was about $60 a day, Glassman said.

If Midland follows through with its plan, a day care would be set up for six to 12 months at the senior center. It would be a social model similar to what had existed, Houk said. But Midland hopes to eventually move to another location and operate a medical model day care center. That would mean that medical professionals would be available to measure blood pressure and make other medical checks, he said.

“I don’t want to give a guarantee that this is a done thing, but we’re certainly moving in that direction. We’re hoping it will work,” Houk said.

A day care center is needed in Lawrence, Glassman said.

“We said we’d do whatever we can to help them open as soon as possible,” he said.