Over the past 12 months, Judy Sweeney and her mother, Dianne Carpenter, have spent a lot of time reminiscing. Much of it has been about Carpenter's days at the adult day rehab program at Wells House nursing home in Johnstown.

“I enjoyed meeting different people,” Carpenter said Wednesday morning.

“Just seeing a smile on her face every day, she looked forward to getting up every morning because she knew she had friends there,” Sweeney said.

Wednesday marked exactly a year since the facility and all other adult day health care programs across the state were directed to close their doors because of the spread of coronavirus.

“She talks about all of her friends who are there, and I just say, ‘In time, mom, in time and soon you will be able to go back,’” said Sweeney, who has worked for 20 years in a different unit at Wells.

Carpenter suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, and diabetes. She moved in with her daughter almost five years ago.

For the first week of the pandemic, she stayed home alone.

“I was panicking all of the time at work, knowing that she was here by herself,” Sweeney said.

She quickly chose to take an ongoing leave of absence from her job to care for her elderly mother.

“It was a hard decision to make, but I did not want people coming into the house because you don’t know who is carrying the virus or not, and I wanted her to be safe,” Sweeney said.

According to the Adult Day Health Care Council, Carpenter is one of about 8,000 New Yorkers who relied on day programs for services ranging from nursing and physical therapy to meals and social activities.

“It’s unreasonable that you can dine in at a restaurant, go to the Times Union Center for an NCAA hockey game, but you can’t get physical therapy at a medical model adult day health care program,” said Anne Hill, the organization’s executive director. “It’s ridiculous.”

Hill says day programs often allow seniors to stay out of the hospital or delay moving into a nursing home, which is why they’re calling on the state to open them back up.

“There are participants and caregivers in crisis unable to get the services they need, and the state has the ability to solve the problem by reopening adult day health care, but they’ve refused to do so,” Hill said.

In a written statement, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health said, “We understand the difficulty this virus has caused those with disabilities and their families.”

The statement also added that many adults currently at home have benefitted from telehealth services.

“While telehealth is a benefit to individuals who are at home, it is not a replacement for in-person services,” Hill said. “You can’t give somebody a bath or feed them over the phone.”

As she looks for new ways to keep her mother busy, Sweeney says there’s no denying the past 12 months have been especially hard on both of them.

“When she was going to the adult day care program, she was not sleeping all day. I have to fight to keep her awake all day long,” Sweeney said.