IN WEST LAFAYETTE, AN ART SHOW REDRAWS WHAT IT MEANS TO GROW OLD

There are things we know how to measure about aging and decline: the diagnoses, the progression, the cost in dollars and caregiver hours. There are things we are less practiced at measuring. Joy. Belonging. The look on someone's face when they see what their own hands made.

On a Thursday evening in late April, the walls of Joyful Journey Adult Day Services in West Lafayette will hold something most passersby might not expect: a gallery. Paintings made by older adults will hang beside light refreshments and live music, and the community will be invited to look at them.

The event, called Evening of the Arts, is free and open to the public. It runs from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on April 30. But for the people inside Joyful Journey on any given weekday — the organization calls them “Friends” — an evening like this answers a question most of us won’t think to ask until we have to.

Adult day services occupy a unique, undervalued middle ground in American eldercare. They are not nursing homes. They are not home health aides. They are community-based programs that offer structured social, therapeutic and health-related support to adults, many of them living with cognitive decline, while their family caregivers work or rest. Across the country, the model has spent decades proving its value while remaining largely invisible to the people who need it most. Thursday's event is, in part, an attempt to change that.

"These folks at Joyful Journey are showing up every day for some of our most vulnerable neighbors, and for the families holding everything together behind the scenes,” said Mikel Berger, president and CEO of Greater Lafayette Commerce. “The strength of a community is measured by how it cares for all of its members, including those who need support to live with dignity and independence. Organizations like Joyful Journey help make this region worth living in and worth investing in because families can count on finding real support when they need it.”

The numbers behind that invisibility are significant. According to the Alzheimer's Association's 2026 Facts and Figures report, an estimated 6.9 million Americans age 65 and older were living with Alzheimer's dementia in 2024, a figure researchers project will nearly double by midcentury. Nearly 13 million Americans provide unpaid care for a family member or friend with dementia, care the Association values at $446.3 billion annually, more than 17 times the total revenue of McDonald's in 2024.

Nearly 60 percent of those caregivers report feeling high to very high emotional stress. Adult day programs are one of the few community-based tools designed to address that burden directly, and research suggests they work. Based on studies published in the National Institutes of Health's research database, regular use of adult day services is associated with reduced caregiver worry, lower rates of depression and decreased feelings of role overload.

The Opening Minds through Art program, known as OMA, is the engine behind the work on the walls. According to research published in the journal Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, OMA was developed in 2007 at Miami University's Scripps Gerontology Center and has since grown to more than 1,100 trained facilitators operating in over 300 communities across 37 states. The program pairs volunteers one-on-one with people living with dementia to create visual art together.

Based on peer-reviewed studies cited by the program's developers, participants show improved mood and increased engagement compared to other activities, while student volunteers report more empathetic attitudes toward aging. At Joyful Journey, those volunteers have been Purdue University nursing students, building the kind of relationship with “Friends” that doesn’t require intact short-term memory.

"Evening of the Arts is a beautiful reflection of the creativity, dignity and joy our Friends experience every day," said Bess Witcosky, executive director of Joyful Journey. "We are proud to share their work with the community and celebrate the partnerships that make programs like OMA possible."

The Fraternal Order of Eagles provided financial support for Evening of the Arts. Live music will be performed by Denise Wilson and her son, Chance Heasty, with support from the Indiana Arts Commission and The Arts Federation.

Parking is available in the Joyful Journey lot, with overflow across Lindberg Road at Riverside Church.