At Ashley Manor we cater to a variety of clients’ needs. This not only means offering traditional assisted living services, but also specialized services for clients needing care for Alzheimer’s or other dementia related diseases.
Because of this, we are often asked what the difference is between a traditional assisted living facility and a facility that offers highly specialized memory care services.
Here, founder and CEO, Keith Fletcher gives a few brief differences between the two…
Key Differences Between Assisted Living and Memory Care Facilities
As Keith explains there are a few key differences between an assisted living facility and a memory care facility:
1) Some individuals just need some help with basic, everyday living. That could include reminders and help with medications, meal preparation, and social interaction with others. In that case a traditional assisted living facility may be appropriate.
2) On the other hand, Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related diseases can trigger certain behaviors and a memory care facility will have highly trained staff to help clients manage those behaviors appropriately.
3) Whereas a traditional assisted living facility may provide more broad and general care that benefits each resident, in a memory care facility the care is very specific to each individual based on his or her needs.
Above all, either facility should provide a safe, caring environment that tends to the needs of every client.
In the article you wrote that dementia can cause behaviors that require highly trained professionals to handle. My uncle has dementia and we’ve been thinking about finding a good center for him to live in. Especially with my uncle’s dementia getting worse, having trained professionals there to keep him safe would be a great comfort for our family.
I like that you talk about the differences in care that you receive with memory care vs assisted living. It makes sense that a general assisted living center would provide all sorts of care to meet a resident’s needs whether it’s medical, room cleaning, etc. This is something to keep in mind for my mom because she’s struggling to live on her own right now and talking to her about what care she needs most might be helpful considering she needs a little bit of everything.
It’s good to learn about memory care and assisted living. My dad is definitely more on the side of needing basic, everyday help. Luckily, his memory is pretty good still, so I think a traditional assisted living facility would be good for him.