Safe and occupied isn’t enough.
The Day House started with a simple idea: daytime support should be designed first for the person spending their day there.
Caregiver respite matters enormously. We’ve seen firsthand what happens when families are asked to carry too much for too long. But the person spending the day somewhere matters, too.
They deserve more than somewhere to be. They deserve somewhere worth going.
Why we’re building The Day House
We’re Elvina and Robbin Hewitt. Between us, we’ve spent decades supporting people and families through emergency care, community response, aging services, and healthcare.
During 14 years in emergency nursing, Elvina saw what happens when families don’t have enough support: older adults arriving in the emergency department because the people caring for them had become exhausted, overwhelmed, or simply couldn’t keep doing it alone. Her later work in health technology, product development, and aging services pushed her to think about what better support could look like before families reach that point.
Robbin spent nearly 20 years as a San Francisco firefighter-paramedic, responding to thousands of calls in people’s homes and communities. Those years reinforced something simple but important.
People are still people.
Cognitive change doesn’t erase someone’s history, personality, preferences, humor, abilities, relationships, or desire to be part of what’s happening around them. Together, those experiences led us to ask: what if we built somewhere people wanted to attend, rather than somewhere they simply needed to go?
A different standard for a good day
People living with cognitive change are too often defined by what they can no longer do. We want to start with what they can: understanding the person in front of us, adapting how we communicate, and creating an environment that supports who they are.
Some days that might mean creating, moving, helping, talking, or trying something new. Other days it might mean a cup of coffee, music, a walk, or simply enjoying the company of other people.
There is no single right way to have a meaningful day.
What matters is having choices, being included, and continuing to treat adults like adults. We don’t expect someone experiencing cognitive change to do all the adapting.
It’s our job to meet them where they are.
Our goal is for members to have somewhere meaningful to go, and for their families to have dependable time for everything else life requires. Both people should get something valuable from the day.
We want to help change the question from
“Where can Mom go so I can get a break?”
to
“Mom has somewhere meaningful to go today. And I have dependable time for myself.”
Elvina Hewitt, RN, MBA
Founder & Owner
- 14 years emergency nursing & leadership
- Aging services, health technology & product development
- Brown University · NYU Nursing · UC Berkeley Haas
Robbin Hewitt
Co-Founder
- Nearly 20 years as a San Francisco firefighter-paramedic
- Thousands of calls in people’s homes and communities
- Dementia care & community response
- Certified Dementia Care Navigator · Positive Approach to Care training
Trust is built in what we do.
We know credentials alone don’t earn a family’s trust. That comes from the people we hire, how we train and treat them, the culture we create, how well we get to know our members, and what families experience when they walk through our doors.
We’re continuing to learn from people living with cognitive change, their families, dementia-care professionals, and our community as we build The Day House. Because ultimately, our belief is simple:
A person can need support and still have a life to participate in.
That’s the standard we’re building toward.