Adult day care comes in two forms -- one called adult day health services (or 'medical model'), the other called adult day care (or 'social model'). Patterned somewhat after child day care services, these programs offer a safe, secure, stimulating environment for persons whose family circumstances allow them to remain in their homes in the evenings (and possibly on weekends), but who need some sort of supervision during the daytime.

Adult day care is particularly appropriate for a person whose needs are ordinarily met by their own family members, especially when those family members may have to work outside the home but are generally at home in the evenings and on weekends. Social model adult day care is, as the name implies, oriented toward the social aspects of life and may include games, memory orientation exercises, music, dancing and reading in a supervised atmosphere. Social adult day care programs also organize field trips and special events.

Most social programs do not have a medical component, such as a full-time nurse or physician on staff; however, staff at social programs maintain close contacts with the client's personal medical team in order to report observed significant changes in health care. Medical model adult day health care, on the other hand, has a strong medical component, is usually staffed by at least one full-time registered nurse able to administer medicine and perform routine medical tasks, as well as on-site physician back-up when needed. Most medical models have an affiliation with either a hospital or nursing home and provide social activities on top of medical services. Some adult day health care programs specialize in one segment of the population or another (for example, the blind, AIDS patients, etc.).