Identity, Semiotics, and Use of Symbols in Adult Day Services.

Purpose: This article explores experiences of older adults attending an Adult Day Service (ADS) center. We focus on semiotics, which is ADS clients' use of symbols to communicate with others and to assert their personal and social identities. We refer to the ADS as a semiosphere-a term that refers to the dense, symbolically mediated interactions among this community.

Methods: Ethnographers observed and interviewed clients, family, and staff members at the religiously affiliated ADS. They focused on the daily life worlds of those who attended and worked there.

Results: We identified three elements through which clients expressed and communicated in semiotic ways, aspects of their identity: (a) music and dance, (b) individual use of a symbol-a doll and, (c) symbolic organization of space through seating patterns at activity tables. Elements were created and shared communally.

Discussion: The ADS, as a cultural entity, is itself an illustration of symbolic complexity. Ideologies about aging, dementia, identity, and the ADS' role in improving elders' cognition and health are structured into the setting, forming a semiosphere. Our study revealed that elders, with staff members' help, created a cultural world at the ADS.