Memory care

What it means

Memory care is usually a secured wing or building within an assisted living community, or a standalone one. The doors are alarmed, the layout is designed to reduce confusion, and staffing ratios are higher.

It is licensed by the state, and what a state requires of a memory care unit — training, staffing, physical design — varies considerably.

It costs substantially more than assisted living in the same building, and Medicare does not pay for it.

Why it matters

Families are often moved into it from assisted living at short notice, when wandering or behavior makes the ordinary setting unworkable. Knowing the trigger and the price beforehand turns a crisis into a decision.

It is also the setting where the difference between a facility's marketing and its license matters most: 'memory care' is not a protected term everywhere.

When you are likely to meet it

• When a parent with dementia can no longer be safely in ordinary assisted living.
• When a community says it can no longer meet somebody's needs.
• When comparing what two facilities mean by the same words.

How this varies by state

What a state requires of a memory care unit — licensing, staffing, training, whether the term is regulated at all — is set by state law and differs a great deal.

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.
• Adult day servicesA daytime program providing supervision, activity and often health care outside the home.
• Assisted livingHousing with help for daily tasks and staff on site, but without the licensed clinical care a nursing facility provides.
• CapacityWhether somebody is able to understand a decision and its consequences well enough to make it. It is decided decision by decision, not once and for all.
• Continuing care retirement communityA campus offering independent living through to nursing care, usually entered by paying a large fee up front.
• Custodial careHelp with everyday living rather than medical treatment — bathing, dressing, eating, moving about. It is what most long-term care actually is.
• Independent livingAge-restricted housing with services and no personal care — the step before assisted living.
• Long-term care ombudsmanAn independent advocate for residents of nursing homes and other care facilities, who investigates complaints and works to resolve them.
• MedicaidA joint federal and state program that pays for health care, including long-term care, for people with limited income and assets.
• Medication therapy managementA Part D service that reviews everything a person takes at once, with a written summary — and enrols people automatically.
• PolypharmacyTaking enough different medicines that the combination becomes a risk in its own right.
• Skilled nursing facilityA facility providing nursing and rehabilitation care that has to be delivered by licensed clinical staff — not the same thing as a nursing home in the everyday sense.

Sahvelo guidance that uses this

• Housing transitions