By Kerri Pepoy,Staff Writer

PARIS – Community Concepts Inc. will end its adult day-services program by closing two locations in Paris and Rumford effective Jan. 31, following the recent shutting of locations in Farmington and Rumford, the social services agency announced Thursday.

“This is the final breath of the program,” Matthew Smith, executive director of Community Concepts, said in a phone interview.

The latest closures affect approximately 50 clients and nine staff positions.

The program offers personalized daily therapeutic care and socialization for seniors and adults with mental health challenges to help them live in their communities rather than institutionalized care settings.

A center on Pleasant Street in Farmington and one on Prospect Street in Rumford closed earlier this month, forcing about 15 to 20 people to go to another Rumford location on Congress Street for services. Eight employees lost their jobs as a result of those shutdowns.

Now, the Congress Street location and a center on High Street in Paris will close as well, ending the program.

Smith said state funding cuts forced the program to end. “The funding cuts were just too much to cope with. We’re not in a position to subsidize state programs,” he said, adding that financial losses in the agency’s first quarter, which began Oct. 1 and ends Dec. 31, totaled “tens of thousands of dollars.”

The state Department of Health and Human Services has reduced the number of hours per week for which the state will fund participants. “What that did was cause a financial crisis within the program,” Smith said. “We’re particularly concerned because folks who were participating received care that helped stabilize them.”

The adult day-services program was established four years ago to serve participants in Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin counties. It has served 128 clients since opening.

Community Concepts invested some of its own funds for startup costs, but state monies kicked in once the program was operating.

“In 2004, we received good reports from DHHS,” Smith said. “Then there was a change in policy (in early 2005) that cut back hours for some of our clients.”

Smith said clients and employees impacted by the program’s demise will be given 30 days’ notice, and Community Concepts will assist employees with obtaining health insurance and unemployment benefits. “They are all very skilled workers with various levels of certification. … I’m hopeful they will all do well,” he said.

But he is did not know of similar programs where he can refer clients, particularly in Oxford and Franklin counties. “I’m not aware of anywhere else they can go,” he said.

In an e-mail to the Sun Journal, Geoffrey Green, deputy commissioner, operations and support, Department of Health and Human Services, stated “Funding for adult day services was cut by 1 percent this year. We are not limiting hours. Hours of service are determined by standardized assessments and are based on need. Criteria for the assessments have not changed.”