Assisted Living
Assisted living is a residential community where older adults have their own apartment and receive daily help with bathing, dressing, medication, and meals from staff on site around the clock.
Reviewed by Valerie VanBooven, RN, BSN
What's Included
- A private apartment or suite within the community
- Daily help with bathing, dressing, grooming, and toileting
- Medication management by trained staff
- Three meals a day in a communal dining room
- Housekeeping, laundry, and building maintenance
- Staff on site twenty-four hours a day, and scheduled transport
- Organised activities and social programmes
Who It's For
An older adult who needs hands-on help most days and should not be alone overnight, but who does not need the skilled nursing a nursing home provides.
Understanding Assisted Living
Assisted living sits between independent living and a nursing home. Residents keep their own apartment and a good deal of privacy, while staff are on hand day and night for the parts of the day they cannot manage alone.
The line against independent living is personal care: independent living removes the cooking and the upkeep, assisted living adds hands-on help with bathing, dressing, and medication. The line against a nursing home is clinical need, since assisted living is not staffed for continuous skilled nursing.
Pricing usually has two parts, a base rent for the apartment and meals, and a care fee set by an assessment of how much help someone needs. That care fee normally rises as needs increase, which is the part families are most often surprised by later.
Many communities also run memory care, sometimes in a separate secured area, which allows someone with dementia to move within the same campus rather than to an unfamiliar building. Licensing and what a community may provide are set by each state.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is assisted living?
Assisted living is a residential community where older adults have their own apartment and receive daily help with bathing, dressing, medication, and meals from staff on site around the clock.
Who is assisted living for?
An older adult who needs hands-on help most days and should not be alone overnight, but who does not need the skilled nursing a nursing home provides.
Other Services
How to Get Assisted Living
Enter a city and state below to find home care providers in the Care Across America directory who serve that area. Contact them directly to ask whether they offer assisted living and to get pricing for your situation.