Greenville Senior AdvisorWhat is the difference between adult day care and in-home care?
Adult day care is a DPH-licensed daytime program outside the home with supervision, meals, activities and often health monitoring, while in-home care sends an aide to the home for personal care and companionship on a schedule the family sets.
DPH licenses 17 adult day care facilities in the four counties, with licensed capacity for 1,058 participants in all. In-home care providers are licensed separately. Many families use both: adult day care on weekdays while they work, and an aide for evenings or weekends.
Which costs less in South Carolina?
Adult day care costs far less for a full day: CareScout's 2025 South Carolina median for adult day health care five days a week is about $1,560 a month, while 44 hours a week of home care runs about $5,982 a month.
Adult day care's cost advantage comes from shared staffing. Its limits are hours (typically weekdays only) and transportation, which some centers provide and others do not.
Is adult day care good for someone with dementia?
Often, yes: structured activity, social contact and a predictable routine help many people with mild to moderate dementia, and the day gives family caregivers a reliable break; ask each center how it handles wandering, agitation and toileting.
The first weeks can be hard as the person adjusts. Centers usually recommend starting with two or three days a week. In-home care can suit people who become distressed by any change of setting.
Does Medicaid or PACE pay for adult day care in South Carolina?
Yes, for eligible people: the Community Choices waiver includes adult day health care and adult day health care nursing as services, and PACE participants attend PACE's own licensed day center, which in the Upstate is Prisma Health SeniorCare PACE's Greenville center.
Medicare does not pay for adult day care. Long-term care insurance sometimes does. Ask each center whether it is enrolled as a Community Choices provider.
How do I choose an adult day center?
Visit on an ordinary weekday, stay through a meal, and ask about hours, transportation, staff-to-participant ratios, whether a nurse is on site, how medications are given, how the center communicates with families, and what it does when a participant becomes ill.
Check the center on DPH's Find a Facility map under Adult Day Care Facilities; the license shows the licensed participant capacity, which tells you how large the program is.
At a glance
| Adult day care | In-home care | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | A DPH-licensed center | The person's home |
| 2025 SC median | About $1,560/month (5 days a week) | About $31/hour |
| Social contact | Built in | Depends on the aide |
| Hours | Weekday daytime | Whatever the family pays for |
Sources include S.C. Code Regs. 60-84, DPH Healthcare Quality and SCDHHS pages and bulletins, CareScout, CMS and VA rate tables as cited above; see our editorial standards.
