How Arkansas regulates memory care

Is memory care licensed separately in Arkansas?

Not as a separate license: Arkansas regulates memory care as an Alzheimer's special care unit (ASCU), a separate and distinct unit inside an assisted living facility or other long-term care facility, which must meet extra requirements on top of the building's own license.

Both Level I and Level II assisted living facilities may run an ASCU, and nursing homes care for residents with dementia under their own license and federal rules. A building that simply has some residents with memory loss mixed in with everyone else is not running an ASCU, however kind its staff.

In the state's bed records for the six counties, 2 licensed assisted living facilities carry dementia care in the name or history: Chapters Living of Little Rock, Ginny & Bob Shell Alzheimer's Center. Many other buildings run special care units without saying so in their licensed name, so the written disclosure statement is the document that matters.

What must an Arkansas memory care unit tell families before admission?

Before admission the facility must give the resident or family a written disclosure statement describing the care and services the unit provides for people with Alzheimer's disease or related dementia, and each resident gets an individual assessment and an individual support plan.

The disclosure is the document to compare between buildings. Ask for it on the first visit, not after a deposit. Look for what triggers a move out of the unit, how the doors are secured, what the activity program actually includes on a weekday afternoon, and how families are told about falls or behavior changes.

How much dementia training must Little Rock memory care staff have?

Unit staff must complete dementia training within five months of hire, at no less than eight hours a month during that period, covering the stages of dementia, behavior management, wandering and egress control, restraints and medication management, and then receive at least two hours of in-service every quarter plus two more dementia-specific hours a year.

Ask who teaches the course, whether night and weekend aides attend, and to see the training log. Five months is a long runway, so ask how many current staff are still inside it.

How is staffing figured in an Arkansas memory care unit?

The unit's census is counted separately, based only on the residents in the unit, so staffing for the special care unit cannot be borrowed from the rest of the building on paper.

Minimum direct care staff by resident census and shift (day / evening / night), Level I rules 504.3(b)(1).

The table above is Arkansas's Level I minimum for any assisted living census; a memory care unit applies its own count. Ask how many staff are assigned to the unit itself on each shift, and whether that number holds overnight.

How can we tell which Little Rock buildings run a memory care unit?

Ask each building directly and get the written disclosure, because Arkansas's public bed records list licensed beds by level but do not identify which buildings run an Alzheimer's special care unit.

Two central Arkansas facilities carry dementia care in their name or history in the Bed Need Book. Others run units without saying so in their licensed name. Our memory care page explains how to compare them, and the assisted living roster shows every licensed building.