Proclamation 5369

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

The people of this Nation are striving to help older Americans to avoid being institutionalized unnecessarily and to remain independent in their homes. The rapid growth of adult day care centers is a reflection of the increasing interest in the development of long-term community care alternatives for the elderly. These centers offer comprehensive personal, medical, and therapeutic assistance to older people and to the handicapped, thus helping them to maintain a great degree of independence. The centers also offer support for families who are willing to care for their loved ones at home, but who welcome the opportunities the centers afford for wider human contacts among people often consigned to loneliness.

The many adult day care centers throughout America are to be commended for recognizing the vital needs of older people and for striving to meet those needs.

To increase public awareness of the importance of adult day care centers, the Congress, by House Joint Resolution 229, has designated the week beginning September 22, 1985, as "National Adult Day Care Center Week" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this occasion.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning September 22 through September 28, 1985, as National Adult Day Care Center Week, and I call upon all government agencies, national organizations, community groups, and the people of the United States to observe this week with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.

In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-seventh day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and tenth.

RONALD REAGAN

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:59 a.m., September 30, 1985]