Does My Loved One Need Memory Care or Assisted Living?

The line between memory care and assisted living isn’t always cut and dried, because each care facility is different in their size, setup and culture. If you are looking into Memory Care compared to assisted living, start by asking yourself why. The answer will probably shine a light where your loved one should go next. You might need to find a smaller assisted living that is a better fit for your loved one instead of memory care, but let’s explore the benefits of memory care to help you decide.

What is Memory Care?

Memory care units might exist within a large assisted living Denver community while smaller assisted living facilities might specialize in memory care. If a facility is specifically licensed as a memory care unit, they are normally kept small in order to effectively manage behaviors, and they are secured to ensure that your loved one can not wander outside. Even if your loved one will not wander outside they might wander into their neighbor’s apartment or room unannounced. While this is a harmless act, it can create an uncomfortable living situation for others. With memory care, your loved one will receive more specialized care and monitoring so that everyone can live more comfortably.

Comfortable Living

When a facility has a trained team that provides more one-on-one attention and specifically understands how to help “manage” behaviors by taking the time to understand what unmet needs or exterior stimulation is causing the behavior, your loved one benefits. Yelling, screaming, misplacing, shopping and exit seeking are addressed in the best way possible. The situation will be properly managed when they occur, and actions will be taken to figure out the triggers in order to reduce the chances of outbursts happening in the future. When your loved one is in the right setting for their needs, their quality of life improves.

Finding the Right Fit

Not all memory care communities deal with all behaviors. Each facility is setup to handle specific thresholds of behavior, so memory care comes in a variety of flavors. The multitude of choices that exist in the Denver area can be overwhelming for family members. If you are looking for assisted living in Denver CO, then you need to give us a call today. We’ve have visited over 300 assisted living facilities and spent over 5,000 hours in the Denver Metro facilities helping families find the right living situation for their loved one. If you’d like to see if we can help you too, give us a call at 720-248-7758 .