Choosing between assisted living and memory care in Indiana is one of the hardest decisions a family faces when a parent has dementia, and it comes down to one safety question. The question is whether the disease has reached the point where a secured, dementia-specialized setting is the only safe place for them.

If you are weighing this, take a breath. You are not failing your parent by considering a locked unit, and you do not have to read the situation perfectly on your own. Assisted living is for an older adult who needs help with daily life but can still largely direct their own day. Memory care is a secured, dementia-specific setting for someone with Alzheimer's disease or another dementia who would wander, get lost, or come to harm without that supervision. In Indiana, memory care is what state law calls Alzheimer's and dementia special care, offered inside a housing with services establishment (one of the settings families know as assisted living) or a health facility, and the disclosure law that governs it shapes what you can find out about a unit's care and fees before you sign. This guide walks through both so you can match the setting to the care your parent actually needs.

In This Guide

Assisted Living vs. Memory Care in Indiana: The Core Difference

Assisted living in Indiana is for an older adult who needs help with daily tasks, bathing, dressing, medications, meals, and getting around, but who can still largely direct their own day. Indiana regulates assisted living unusually. There is no license called "assisted living." Under Indiana Code 12-10-15-3, a place that houses at least five residents and provides, for a fee, at least one regularly scheduled health-related service or at least two regularly scheduled supportive services is a "housing with services establishment," with exclusions such as licensed nursing facilities and condominium communities where at least 80% of units are owner-occupied. Separately, the Indiana Department of Health runs a Residential Care Facility licensing program that surveys facilities and investigates complaints.

Memory care in Indiana is specialized dementia care delivered within a housing with services establishment or a health facility, often in a locked or secured unit, for residents with Alzheimer's disease or another dementia who can no longer safely manage in a standard setting. Indiana addresses it through a disclosure statute and a staff dementia-training rule. Under the statute, a health facility or housing with services establishment that both locks, secures, segregates, or runs a special unit or program for residents with Alzheimer's or dementia and advertises itself as providing Alzheimer's or dementia care is required by Indiana Code 12-10-5.5 to disclose, in writing, the specific care and programming it provides. That disclosure law is how Indiana distinguishes and regulates dementia-specialized care within the assisted-living framework, so the real decision in front of you is not which building to pick. It is what level of dementia care your parent needs, and what it costs.

Side by Side

Assisted living Memory care
Level of care Help with daily living; resident can still largely direct their own day Secured, dementia-specialized care for residents who cannot safely self-direct
Typical resident An older adult needing daily support without dementia-specific safety risks Someone with Alzheimer's disease or another dementia who wanders, exits, or presents safety risks
Indiana regulation No "assisted living" license; a housing with services establishment under IC 12-10-15-3, and the Indiana Department of Health separately licenses residential care facilities A secured or special dementia unit that is also marketed as dementia care; governed by the IC 12-10-5.5 Alzheimer's and dementia disclosure law
Cost (2026) About $5,639/month in Indiana (roughly $67,665/year), 35th highest among the states, below the $6,200/month national median Not broken out in the survey; the unit's IC 12-10-5.5 disclosure must itemize charges and fees
Who pays Largely private-pay; Medicaid waivers may cover assisted living services, but none names room and board Largely private-pay; Medicaid waivers may cover assisted living services, but none names room and board

When Assisted Living Is Enough, and When Memory Care Is Needed

If your parent needs help with daily tasks but can still largely manage their own day, communicate their needs, and move safely through familiar spaces, assisted living is usually the right fit. The setting is built for daily-living support without dementia-specific supervision.

Memory care becomes the right setting when dementia-related safety is the central issue. If your parent wanders or tries to leave, gets lost in familiar spaces, or can no longer recognize danger, those are safety needs a secured memory-care unit is set up to handle and a standard setting may not be. Indiana's disclosure law means a facility that runs a secured or special dementia unit and markets it as Alzheimer's or dementia care must put in writing what that care looks like, so ask for the disclosure documentation when you tour.

Dementia progresses, and many families start in assisted living and move to memory care as the disease advances. It is a wrenching step to take, and the guilt that comes with moving a parent into a locked unit is real, even when every clinical sign says it is time. If the community your parent already lives in also runs a memory-care unit, ask whether the move could be a change of wing rather than a relocation across town.

What Assisted Living and Memory Care Cost in Indiana

Here is the part families brace for. Long-term care is expensive, and Indiana sits mid-to-cheap on facility care rather than at the bottom of the national range. According to the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey (released March 2026), assisted living in Indiana runs about $5,639 a month, roughly $67,665 a year, which makes Indiana the 35th most expensive state for it and puts the state about $6,700 a year under the national median of about $6,200 a month, or roughly $74,400 a year. That below-median position does not hold in every setting: adult day health care in Indiana runs about $127 a day (roughly $33,020 a year), the 13th most expensive in the country and about a third above the national median of about $95 a day.

The CareScout survey does not report a separate Indiana memory-care median, so treat any precise memory-care figure you see advertised as an estimate, not a measured rate. Ask each community for its own number in writing: Indiana's disclosure law requires a memory-care unit to itemize its charges and fees for that care.

Both settings are largely private-pay. Indiana Medicaid's PathWays for Aging, Health & Wellness and Traumatic Brain Injury waivers list assisted living as a covered service for people who meet a nursing-facility level of care, but none of the three names room and board. For families who cannot sustain private pay, Indiana delivers Medicaid long-term services and supports for members age 60 and older through PathWays for Aging, a managed-care program launched July 1, 2024 and run by three contracted health plans. PathWays can cover care services through Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS), but plan for the housing cost yourself. If your parent has a long-term care insurance policy, check what it pays toward either setting.

How to Decide

  1. Is your parent cognitively safe in a standard assisted-living setting? Wandering, exit-seeking, or unsafe behaviors that a standard community cannot manage point toward memory care.
  2. How will the cost be covered? Both settings are primarily private-pay. If Medicaid eligibility is likely, explore PathWays for Aging early, because care services can be covered even though the waiver does not name room and board.,

When you tour a memory-care unit in Indiana, ask the facility for its IC 12-10-5.5 disclosure form. By law, that document must spell out the unit's dementia-care philosophy; its criteria for placement, transfer, and discharge; its assessment and care-planning process; its staff-to-resident ratios for each shift; its family-support programs; its guidelines for physical and chemical restraints; and an itemization of charges and fees. That single form is often the most informative document you can get when comparing units, because it puts staffing and cost on paper.

To start a Medicaid inquiry for a parent age 60 or older, begin with the PathWays for Aging program page.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between assisted living and memory care in Indiana?

Assisted living supports daily tasks for someone who can still largely direct their own day. Memory care is a secured, dementia-specialized setting for someone with Alzheimer's disease or another dementia who can no longer safely self-direct. In Indiana, memory care is what state law calls Alzheimer's and dementia special care, offered inside a housing with services establishment or a health facility and governed by the state's disclosure law (IC 12-10-5.5).

How does Indiana regulate memory care?

Through a disclosure law and a staff dementia-training rule. Indiana Code 12-10-5.5 governs what it calls Alzheimer's and dementia special care and places its duties on the health facility or housing with services establishment that provides it. A facility that both locks, secures, segregates, or runs a special unit or program for dementia residents and markets itself as providing Alzheimer's or dementia care must comply with the statute, which requires a written disclosure of the specific dementia-care practices the facility uses, submitted to the state each December and made available to anyone seeking information.

How much does memory care cost in Indiana compared to assisted living?

Assisted living in Indiana runs about $5,639 a month (roughly $67,665 a year) in the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey, 35th highest among the states and below the national median of about $6,200 a month. The survey does not report a separate Indiana memory-care median. Ask each community for its own figure; Indiana's disclosure law requires a memory-care unit to itemize its charges and fees.

Does Indiana Medicaid pay for memory care?

Indiana Medicaid waivers can pay for assisted living services for people who meet a nursing-facility level of care, but none of the waivers that list assisted living names room and board. The PathWays for Aging program, Indiana's Medicaid managed-care program for members age 60 and older, can cover care services through Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) for qualifying members, so plan for the housing cost yourself.,

When should a parent move from assisted living to memory care?

The trigger is usually a dementia-related safety issue: wandering, exit-seeking, unsafe behaviors, or an inability to recognize danger. When a standard assisted-living setting can no longer safely manage those behaviors, a secured memory-care unit is what the situation calls for. If your parent's current community also runs a memory-care unit, ask whether the move could be to a different wing rather than a new address.

Learn More

Care TypesAssisted Living vs. Memory Care by StateMemory care is assisted living built for dementia, and it can cost more. Compare the two on care, cost, and coverage, then open a full guide for your state. Care TypesAssisted Living in IndianaAssisted living in Indiana runs about $5,639 a month, 35th highest among the states. What it costs, who regulates it, and how families pay for it. Care TypesMemory Care in IndianaIndiana regulates memory care through a dementia-care disclosure law. See what the required form tells you, what memory care costs, and how to vet a place. Care TypesNursing Homes in IndianaNursing homes in Indiana in 2026: what a skilled nursing facility costs, how to check a facility's quality, and how Medicaid pays for long-term care. Care TypesCost of Senior Care in IndianaWhat senior care costs in Indiana in 2026: in-home care runs about $35 an hour, and Indiana sits below national medians for assisted living and nursing care. Care TypesAssisted Living vs. Nursing Home in IndianaAssisted living vs. a nursing home in Indiana comes down to level of care and who pays. Compare costs, when each fits, and what Indiana Medicaid covers. Care TypesHome Care vs. Home Health in IndianaHome care vs. home health in Indiana: home health is skilled care Medicare covers, home care is non-medical help it won't, and the IDOH license draws the line.

Find personalized help comparing assisted living and memory care in Indiana 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.

Still have questions?

Brevy answers from this guide and every other guide here, and can check what you qualify for.

BC

Brevy Care Team

Expert eldercare guidance from Brevy's team of healthcare professionals and researchers.