Dementia housing without locked wards? It's a small but growing movement
toggle caption Ashley Milne-Tyte
A few years ago, Janice Rogers of Belchertown, Mass., made a decision many adult children dread. Her mother, Rita, was then 91, living alone in her mobile home, and her health was going downhill.
"I didn't feel I could take care of my mom, which is an awful thing to say," says Rogers. "I felt I needed to 'put' her somewhere."
Since then her mom, now 94, has developed dementia. But the first facility Rogers chose didn't work out. The place her mom lives now is known as a continuing care retirement community, or CCRC, called Loomis Lakeside at Reeds Landing in Springfield, Mass. CCRCs offer multiple levels of care, from independent living to assisted living to memory care to a skilled nursing unit. According to Lisa McCracken, head of research and analytics at NIC — the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care — the number of memory care units in the U.S. has grown 62% in the last decade. But this community is unusual: it doesn't have a memory care unit. It's part of a movement to make living with dementia less segregated and more integrated.
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