Independent living

What it means

Independent living sells convenience rather than care: meals, housekeeping, transport, activities, a smaller home with no maintenance. Staff are not there to help with bathing, dressing or medication.

It is generally not licensed as a care setting, which is the clearest line between it and assisted living.

Why it matters

Families choose it expecting care to be available and discover it is not, usually at the point where it is suddenly needed.

Because it is not a care setting, the consumer protections that apply to licensed facilities usually do not apply to it either.

When you are likely to meet it

• When touring communities that offer several levels on one campus.
• When a parent wants less house rather than more help.

How this varies by state

Whether a setting must be licensed, and at what point, is decided by state law.

Related terms

• Activities of daily livingThe everyday self-care tasks — bathing, dressing, eating, using the toilet, moving from a bed to a chair, continence — that care assessments and insurance policies measure.
• Age-restricted communityA neighborhood that may lawfully require residents to be over a certain age, usually 55 or 62.
• Assisted livingHousing with help for daily tasks and staff on site, but without the licensed clinical care a nursing facility provides.
• Continuing care retirement communityA campus offering independent living through to nursing care, usually entered by paying a large fee up front.
• Home careNon-medical help at home — bathing, dressing, meals, housekeeping, company. Medicare does not pay for it.
• Memory careResidential care designed for dementia — secured, higher-staffed, and more expensive than ordinary assisted living.

Sahvelo guidance that uses this

• Assisted living