Senior Group Home
A senior group home is a small residential home, usually an ordinary house, where a handful of older adults live together and receive personal care and meals from on-site staff, at a much smaller scale than an assisted living community.
Reviewed by Valerie VanBooven, RN, BSN
What's Included
- A private or shared bedroom in a residential house
- All meals, prepared and eaten together
- Help with bathing, dressing, grooming, and toileting
- Medication assistance and coordination with visiting clinicians
- Housekeeping, laundry, and everyday supervision
- A high staff-to-resident ratio compared with larger communities
Who It's For
An older adult who needs daily hands-on care and does better in a small, quiet, home-like setting than in a large community, and families looking for something between in-home care and assisted living.
Understanding Senior Group Home
Senior group homes go by different names depending on the state: adult family homes, residential care homes, board and care homes, personal care homes. The model is broadly the same, a private house licensed to care for a small number of residents.
The appeal is scale. With only a few residents, care is more familiar and less institutional, and staff know each person well. For someone who finds a large community overwhelming, particularly with dementia, that can matter more than the range of amenities.
The trade-off is that group homes offer fewer organised activities, fewer amenities, and less on-site clinical staffing than a larger community. What is on offer depends heavily on the individual home and its operator.
Licensing categories, staffing rules, and what a home may legally provide vary considerably by state, so the state licensing body and the home itself are the sources for what any specific house is approved to do.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is senior group home?
A senior group home is a small residential home, usually an ordinary house, where a handful of older adults live together and receive personal care and meals from on-site staff, at a much smaller scale than an assisted living community.
Who is senior group home for?
An older adult who needs daily hands-on care and does better in a small, quiet, home-like setting than in a large community, and families looking for something between in-home care and assisted living.
Other Services
How to Get Senior Group Home
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 senior group home and to get pricing for your situation.