What Level Of Care Does An Alzheimer's Or Dementia Patient Need?

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:01][music] >> Welcome to Answers About Alzheimer's, where we talk about all different kinds of dementia.

[00:00:13]And we talk about all your problems. We fix your problems. We solve your problems.

[00:00:20]That's what I do.

[00:00:21]So, my name is Deborah Costue, and I am a dementia expert. I specialize in behaviors and communication and results in your living room, results in your bathroom and shower, results in your kitchen. Because that's what you need, right? You need results. Because who cares about trainings that don't produce results? I sure don't. So, that's why I created my training, because I was getting pretty fed up with training after training after training without producing any results. So, why bother?

[00:01:03]But, today I want to talk to you a little bit about um some of the differences between How do you choose? How do you know where mom should go? Should mom or dad maybe be moved to independent living, assisted living, memory care, nursing home? Like, what is the difference?

[00:01:24]And where should I put my loved one? What should I start looking at?

[00:01:31]The first thing I'd like to recommend is, you know, maybe kind of talking to the doctor, but these decisions are they're they're pretty crucial, right?

[00:01:41]Because especially if your person has dementia, every time you move them, they are going to have a decline.

[00:01:49]So, if you decide to move your loved one into independent living or assisted living, and then they end up having too many memory issues, and that community doesn't want them there anymore, or they're afraid that maybe they may wander off and get hurt, that community is not going to keep that person in there. They're going to tell you that they have to move out to either a memory care unit or a nursing home. So, then you're going to have to move them again.

[00:02:19]And it's not only going to make the person with dementia decline with each move, but it's also it's a lot of work for you, right? To keep moving them. So, you don't want to keep doing this over and over.

[00:02:32]So, So, here are some things to consider, okay? Cuz I know that we're thinking the home is too much for mom, um or maybe, you know, they need help with their meds or meals or cleaning or whatever it is, right? There's there's lots of reasons why we may decide that our person needs to move, and if there's time, I'll talk about that at the end.

[00:02:53]But, I want to talk about some of the differences between levels of care and how you're going to make that decision of where your loved one should go.

[00:03:04]So, we talk about dementia here, so I'm going to be talking about specifically a person who is has cognitive decline and what level of care that they should be moving into.

[00:03:17]So, let's talk about independent living first. So, independent living is just that. It's called independent. So, typically this person will have an apartment. It can have a stove, which can be kind of dangerous sometimes for a person with dementia, right? So, it can have a stove, usually has a stove.

[00:03:38]Most independent livings provide one meal a day um that's included. Sometimes it's two meals a day.

[00:03:47]Sometimes it's all three, but I think that's more rare.

[00:03:51]Um often times they do the bedding and the towels for laundry, but they typically don't do your independent laundry. So, these are things that you're going to want to ask the community that you're visiting exactly what services they provide and they don't provide. But, typically independent living provides one or two meals a day and some laundry and limited housekeeping.

[00:04:18]So, your person still is fairly independent on their own. They have to be able to get to and from the dining room on their own. They can't need any assistance with that.

[00:04:31]The next level of care would be assisted living. Assisted living, they take care of your laundry. They do cleaning.

[00:04:40]They provide um medication management. Typically in assisted living, you cannot handle your own meds.

[00:04:50]The assisted living takes over your medications. You can't even have aspirin in your room. You can have nothing.

[00:04:58]Um they provide all of your meals.

[00:05:02]And there's typically a nurse and or a social worker on staff in the building, because they're taking over your medications. Sometimes they have like a podiatrist that comes in.

[00:05:14]Sometimes they have a doctor that comes into the community.

[00:05:18]Um assisted living is uh very flexible in that different assisted livings can do different levels of care.

[00:05:33]There are things called enhanced and enriched. So, you're going to want to find out from your community that you're looking at moving mom or dad into what exactly they are able to do and what they are legally not allowed to do. So, can they assist with bathing? Can they lift and transfer?

[00:05:53]These are very important questions, because sometimes you'll move in at one level, and then it becomes a la carte, and then if you need bathing, that costs extra.

[00:06:05]Right? So, you're going to want to know exactly what the community can and cannot do.

[00:06:12]The next level of care is um memory care.

[00:06:18]Pretty much the difference between memory care and assisted living is that it is a locked unit. So, your loved one cannot just walk out the door.

[00:06:29]That can help with safety issues, especially if your person may be prone to wandering.

[00:06:36]So, the real difference between assisted living and memory care is that locked door.

[00:06:44]They also usually have much smaller rooms in a memory care unit. Sometimes they're shared rooms as well, so that's something that you would want to know.

[00:06:55]You would also want to know the extent of the activities that they provide in a memory care unit.

[00:07:02]And sometimes people are not allowed to have telephones in a memory care.

[00:07:08]So, you may not be able to easily call your loved one and have a conversation with them on the phone.

[00:07:15]The next one is nursing home.

[00:07:18]And if you are considering placing your loved one in a nursing home, you actually have to have what's called um a PRI screen.

[00:07:30]Um at least in New York State you do.

[00:07:33]And you have to have certain uh levels of disabilities, let's say, that you're unable to perform, like your activities of daily living.

[00:07:47]Because you can't just place someone randomly in a nursing home. They have to qualify. So, they have to really be at a deterioration level that the nursing home will accept them.

[00:08:02]And when we're talking about Alzheimer's and dementia symptoms, nursing homes don't want people with memory issues unless they are not mobile.

[00:08:16]Because they create a lot of problems for them.

[00:08:19]Uh they have to spend a lot of time keeping an eye on them, right? So, nursing homes often don't want people with cognitive issues, especially if they're mobile, cuz they're afraid they're going to, you know, walk out the door. It's maybe not a locked unit like a memory care unit.

[00:08:38]Memory care units are also often uh private pay.

[00:08:42]A lot of them don't take insurance, Medicaid, Medicare.

[00:08:45]So, it's all out of pocket.

[00:08:48]Whereas a nursing home can be can be paid for.

[00:08:51]So, there's there's a lot of there's a lot of moving parts when you're looking at a continuum of care.

[00:08:59]Right? So, we have independent living, assisted living, and under the assisted living, you could have enhanced, enriched, there's other levels involved.

[00:09:11]We also have memory care.

[00:09:14]And then we have nursing care.

[00:09:17]Nursing homes. So, after the nursing care or within the nursing, we also have palliative and hospice care. I also have a video on that that you're more than welcome to watch.

[00:09:28]But, I would like to you just kind of leave leave you with this kind of note, right? Um when you're choosing a place, again, nursing home, you can't just choose to put your loved one in a nursing home. They actually have to qualify.

[00:09:46]Same with memory care units. They're probably going to come and interview your person, and they're going to make sure that they're going to be a good fit for their community.

[00:09:53]And um they have to have, you know, memory loss or memory issues to end up in a memory care unit.

[00:10:02]So, remember that with each move, the person with dementia will decline. They will have uh worsening in their Alzheimer's or dementia symptoms. And I have some really great resources for you here in Forget Me Not. This is a number one best seller. It's very highly recommended. You can get this on Amazon and anywhere books are sold. I do offer one-on-one coaching. If this is something that you would like to talk about, if you're not sure what you should do, if you're thinking about moving your loved one in with you, and you would kind of like to know what that's going to look like, because a lot of us have a really good intentions, and then we move our loved one in with us, and we don't realize the magnitude of care that is involved. So, if you would like to kind of hash this out with someone before you make a final decision, I do do one-on-one coaching sessions. You can book a call on my website. There will be a link below. I also offer a four-day dementia course that will teach you literally everything you need to know on caring for a person with dementia. You don't have to struggle anymore. I can give you so many tips and scripts that work to get results from your person with dementia that you don't need to struggle anymore.

[00:11:19]I've had people tell me that their stress level has gone from a thousand to zero after the first day of class.

[00:11:29]My course is uh four days, once a week for four weeks, and it's about five to six hours each day. So, this is an all-encompassing course. It will give you all of the tools that you need from today all the way to the end of the disease process.

[00:11:48]You can also take it online at your own pace. The decision is totally up to you.

[00:11:53]But, book a call on my website, answersaboutalz.org, or if you would like to find a full list of everything that is available in the course, you can find that on my website, answersaboutalz.org.

[00:12:06]I hope you enjoyed today's video. Shoot me some comments. I love to hear from you, and join me on TikTok, because that's where it's happening. TikTok.

[00:12:15]I'll see you next time. Bye. You too can have these amazing results, guaranteed.

[00:12:20]Join us in disrupting the memory care industry once and for all. To see if you qualify for our program, go to answersaboutalz.org.