Arkansas regulates memory care through dementia-specific staff training and an Alzheimer's Special Care Unit disclosure statement, not a separate memory-care license. This guide explains what the training and disclosure cover, what to verify on a visit, what it costs, and who pays.
In This Guide
- Key Takeaways
- How Arkansas Regulates Memory Care
- What the Disclosure Tells You
- What It Costs and Who Pays
- How to Vet a Memory-Care Setting
- Frequently Asked Questions
How Arkansas Regulates Memory Care
When you start calling facilities, "memory care" gets thrown around as if it were a single licensed product. In Arkansas it isn't. The state never created a stand-alone memory-care license. What it built instead is a pair of safeguards: a training requirement for the people who do the caregiving, and a disclosure requirement for any unit that markets itself as a dementia unit. Learning to read both is the most useful thing you can do before you tour a single place.
Start with the people. Under Arkansas's dementia-training rule (20 CAR 410-404), staff who care for residents with dementia have to complete initial training that covers Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, person-centered care, assessment and care planning, activities of daily living, and dementia behaviors and communication. The training doesn't stop after onboarding either. Each year, covered staff must complete at least two hours of continuing education. That ongoing requirement matters because dementia care isn't static, and a team that keeps learning is a team that keeps up as your parent's needs change.
The second safeguard applies to the unit itself. A facility that operates an Alzheimer's Special Care Unit must have a disclosure statement approved by the state before it can use it. The disclosure has to spell out the unit's philosophy of care, its pre-admission screening and its admission, discharge, and transfer criteria, the training its staff receive, and the minimum direct-care staffing per shift. The idea is straightforward: if a unit is going to use the words "Alzheimer's care" or "memory care" to draw your family in, it has to put on the record what those words actually mean inside its walls.
One thing to keep straight. The disclosure isn't a license, and there's no memory-care license behind it. Dementia care in Arkansas is delivered inside an already-licensed setting. For most families that setting is a Level II assisted living facility, which can provide or arrange nursing services and serve residents who are eligible for nursing-home level of care; a Level I facility doesn't provide nursing services and serves lighter needs. Both levels are licensed and regulated by the Arkansas Office of Long Term Care (OLTC), part of the state Department of Human Services. A resident with heavier medical needs may be in a nursing facility instead. Either way, the dementia care sits on top of that base license, and the disclosure statement is the document that describes it.
What the Disclosure Tells You
The disclosure is built around five things the state requires it to describe, and each one answers a question you'd want answered anyway. Reading it before a tour gives you a head start, because you arrive already knowing what the unit has put on the record. Your job on the visit then becomes checking whether the building matches the paperwork.
| What the disclosure must describe | What to ask, and what to check on a visit |
|---|---|
| Philosophy of care | Ask the staff to put their approach in their own words, then watch whether it shows in how they speak to residents who are confused or upset |
| Pre-admission screening | Find out how the unit decides whether your parent is a fit, and what that screening looks at, before you commit |
| Admission, discharge, and transfer criteria | Learn who the unit will accept, and what behaviors or care needs would lead it to discharge or transfer a resident, while you still have time |
| Training staff receive | Ask what the dementia training covers, who gets it, whether new hires get it before working alone, and how it's documented |
| Minimum direct-care staffing per shift | Get the per-shift staffing the unit commits to, then visit at different times to see whether the floor actually reflects it |
The discharge and transfer criteria are the part families most often skip, and they're the part that can hurt most later. Dementia changes over years, not weeks, and a unit that's a fine fit today may decide down the road that it can no longer meet your parent's needs. Read what the disclosure says about that now, while you have leverage and time, rather than discovering the limit during a crisis.
Staffing is worth equal attention. Because the disclosure has to state the minimum direct-care staffing per shift, you can hold a number in your hand and then test it against reality. A ratio on paper means little if the floor feels thin at dinner or overnight. A disclosure that reads as vague or boilerplate is itself a signal. The whole point of the document is to make a unit commit, in writing, to what its care involves. If the answers are thin, ask for specifics in person, and notice whether the staff fill the gaps with real detail or only with reassurance.
What It Costs and Who Pays
Cost is usually what families brace for, and there's no clean single number for memory care in Arkansas. The state doesn't publish one, and because memory care here is a layer on top of an existing license rather than a separately surveyed category, the industry surveys that track senior-care prices don't isolate it the way they isolate assisted living.
What you do have is a solid anchor for the base. Per the Genworth/CareScout 2024 Cost of Care Survey, the most recent state-level data, assisted living in Arkansas runs a median of about $4,724 a month (roughly $56,688 a year), which sits well below the national median of about $70,800 a year. Memory care costs more than that, here as everywhere, because dementia care means more staff time, dementia-specific training, and a setting built for safety. How much more depends on the facility, its size, and the level of care your parent needs. Treat memory care as a premium on top of that assisted-living base, and be skeptical of any source quoting one precise statewide memory-care number.
For context on the upper end, the same survey put a semi-private nursing-home room in Arkansas at about $85,775 a year and a private room at about $92,528, both well below the national medians. Those are industry-survey medians, not government figures, and costs vary across the state and climb as care needs grow. Use them to set expectations, then get a specific written quote from any place you're serious about. The advertised figure is almost always a base rate. Ask what it includes, how the facility charges as care needs grow, how it reassesses care as dementia progresses, and how often rates rise.
Paying for it is where families often get caught off guard. Assisted living in Arkansas is largely private-pay. Room and board generally isn't covered by Medicaid, but the Living Choices Assisted Living waiver can cover personal-care and limited nursing services for eligible residents of an enrolled Level II facility, though, as with all such waivers, it does not pay for room and board. Dementia care runs for years and the bill is steep, so it's worth checking eligibility and planning early rather than assuming the whole cost is on you.
How to Vet a Memory-Care Setting
You don't have to become an expert in dementia care to make a good decision. You have to get the disclosure, hold it up against what you see, and ask the questions its five topics hand you.
- Get the Alzheimer's Special Care Unit disclosure in writing. Ask any unit that markets dementia care for its state-approved disclosure statement and read it before you tour. A place that hedges or can't produce it is telling you something.
- Confirm the underlying license. The disclosure describes the dementia care, but the facility still has to hold a valid license to operate, usually a Level II assisted living license from the Arkansas Office of Long Term Care. Verify it with the state rather than trusting the sign out front.
- Pin down staff training and the admission, discharge, and transfer criteria. Ask what the dementia training covers, whether new hires get it before working alone, how it's documented, and whether staff are getting their yearly continuing education. Then read the admission, discharge, and transfer terms closely, since those decide whether your parent can stay as the disease progresses.
- Test the staffing against the disclosure. The disclosure states a minimum direct-care staffing per shift. Visit at more than one time of day, including a mealtime or an evening, and see whether the floor matches the number the unit committed to on paper.
- Get the costs in writing, and read the discharge terms again. Ask for a written breakdown of the base rate, what memory care adds, how care levels get reassessed, and what triggers an increase. Bring the contract home to read the refund and discharge terms without a salesperson in the room.
Tour at least a couple of places. The goal isn't a perfect one. It's a facility whose limits you understand going in, whose disclosure you've read, and whose license you've confirmed rather than taken on faith.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Arkansas doesn't issue a separate memory care license. It regulates dementia care through staff training under the dementia-training rule (20 CAR 410-404) and through an Alzheimer's Special Care Unit disclosure statement that the state must approve before a unit uses it. The care itself is delivered inside a licensed setting, usually a Level II assisted living facility, with the dementia care layered on top.
Under 20 CAR 410-404, staff who care for residents with dementia must complete initial training covering Alzheimer's and related dementias, person-centered care, assessment and care planning, activities of daily living, and dementia behaviors and communication. On top of that, they must complete at least two hours of continuing education each year. Asking how a unit documents that training, and whether new hires complete it before working alone, is a fair question on any tour.
The disclosure statement must describe the unit's philosophy of care, its pre-admission screening and its admission, discharge, and transfer criteria, the training its staff receive, and the minimum direct-care staffing per shift. Reading it before you visit tells you what the unit has committed to in writing, so your tour becomes a matter of checking whether the building matches the document.
There's no reliable single statewide figure for memory care alone. Use the assisted-living base as your anchor, about $4,724 a month per the Genworth/CareScout 2024 survey and well below the national median, and expect memory care to run higher because of the added staff time, dementia training, and secure setting that special care requires. The advertised rate is usually a base that rises as care needs grow, so get a written breakdown from any place you're considering.
Mostly no. Assisted living and the memory care delivered within it are largely private-pay, and room and board generally isn't covered. The Living Choices Assisted Living waiver can help cover personal-care and limited nursing services for eligible residents of an enrolled Level II facility, but it doesn't pay for room and board. So it's worth checking eligibility early rather than assuming the entire bill is private-pay.
Learn More
- Assisted Living in Arkansas
- Nursing Homes in Arkansas
- Home Care vs. Home Health in Arkansas
- Caregiver Burnout: Signs and Support
- Medicaid Planning Strategies
Find personalized help requesting and reading an Arkansas unit's Alzheimer's Special Care Unit disclosure at brevy.com.
The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.