Memory Care in Maine (2026): Rules & Cost

Memory care in Maine isn't a license you can shop for and line up side by side. The state never created one. Instead, dementia care is delivered inside Maine's licensed assisted housing programs, and the rules for a Memory Care Unit sit in Part B of the state's licensing rule, the residential care facility rule. Those rules require a secured unit, minimum staffing ratios, set hours of dementia training, and written information the facility must give residents and families.1 This guide explains what that information covers, what to check on a visit, what it costs, and who pays.

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• How Maine Regulates Memory Care
• What the Disclosure Tells You
• What It Costs and Who Pays
• How to Vet Memory Care in Maine
• Frequently Asked Questions

How Maine Regulates Memory Care

When you start calling around for "memory care," it sounds like a single licensed thing you could compare across facilities. In Maine it isn't. The state never created a separate memory-care license. Dementia care is delivered inside a licensed assisted housing program, the same framework that covers assisted living and residential care more broadly.1 Knowing that before you tour a single place changes what you look for, because it tells you where to press: on the written information Maine's rule requires a Memory Care Unit to put in your hands.

Those assisted housing programs are licensed by the Maine DHHS Division of Licensing and Certification under rule 10-144 C.M.R. Chapter 113, with authority from Title 22 of the Maine Revised Statutes.2 As of a September 2025 reorganization, Chapter 113 separates assisted living facilities, which deliver services in private apartments, from residential care facilities, which deliver services in private or semi-private bedrooms.2 Maine's Memory Care Unit rules sit in Part B, the residential care facility rule; Part A, the assisted living rule, has no Memory Care Unit section.1 So the first thing a memory-care setting carries is the program's underlying license, the thing that lets it operate at all.

Layered on top of that license is the part built specifically for dementia. In 2019 the Legislature passed Resolve 2019, Chapter 106, which directed DHHS to amend Chapter 113 to require memory-care disclosure statements, activities matched to each resident's assessed needs, evidence from staffing agencies that the staff they supply have the required training, and a shift in new-employee training from "dealing with difficult behaviors" to "understanding behavior as communication."1 The adopted rule is Part B. It defines a Memory Care Unit as "a unit, facility or distinct part of a facility that provides services in a designated, separated area for residents diagnosed with neurocognitive impairment such as Alzheimer's disease or other dementia." The unit must be locked, segregated or secured, and service planning must take a Person Centered Care approach with opportunities for family engagement.1 Part B doesn't use the phrase "disclosure statement," so ask for the information for residents of Memory Care Units, which is what the rule calls it.1

Maine also writes numbers into the rule. Part B sets minimum direct-care staff-to-resident ratios of 1:12 from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., 1:18 from 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., and 1:30 from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., plus additional staffing sufficient to meet residents' care and safety needs. Every new staff member assigned to the unit needs at least eight hours of classroom and eight hours of clinical orientation before working with residents, and all unit staff need eight hours of dementia-related training each year. A direct care worker must also pass a Staff Competency Evaluation before being scheduled on the unit.1 Those are minimums, not a promise of good care, which is why reading the facility's written information closely still matters so much.

What the Disclosure Tells You

The written information a Memory Care Unit must give families is where the word "memory care" stops being a sales pitch and becomes something you can pin down. Ask for it, and you don't have to take a tour guide's reassurance on faith: you get a document you can read before a visit and again after, checking it against what you actually saw. A program that won't produce it has told you something too.

Part B lists nine categories the facility must provide to residents and family members: a written statement of its philosophy; its assessment and service-planning process, with information on staffing to meet resident needs; the design features that support adults with cognitive impairments; the frequency and types of activities; family involvement and family support programs; security measures; in-service staff training; admission and discharge criteria; and information on legal advocacy services, which must also be posted where residents can reach it.1 Each of those is something a family genuinely needs to understand, and each one hands you a fair, specific question to bring on a visit.

Read the staffing and training sections most closely. Part B's ratios and training hours are floors, so the facility's written information is your main window into whether the unit staffs above them and is actually built for dementia or just labeled that way.1 A vague paragraph that promises "specially trained staff" without saying what the training covers is worth a follow-up question. So is a staffing description that reads well on paper but doesn't match what you see during a visit, especially in the evening, when many people with dementia grow more agitated and the building is quieter.

The therapeutic activities matter more than they first appear, too. A strong dementia unit has structure to its day rather than a television and a hallway, and the activities are adapted as cognition declines. Ask to see an actual schedule, not a glossy sample, and notice whether residents are engaged in it when you walk through.

What It Costs and Who Pays

Cost is usually what families brace for, and there's no clean single number for memory care in Maine. The state doesn't publish one, and because memory care here is delivered within a licensed assisted housing program rather than as a separately surveyed category, the industry surveys that track senior-care prices don't break it out the way they break out assisted living.

What you do have is a solid anchor for the base, and in Maine that base is high. Per the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey, the most recent state-level data, assisted living in Maine runs about $81,720 to $98,460 a year, depending on which CareScout publication you read, well above the national median of about $74,400 a year.3 Maine's long-term care costs run above the national medians across every setting. Memory care costs more than that assisted-living base, 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 program, the unit, and how much care your loved one needs. Treat memory care as a premium on top of that figure, and be wary 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 Maine at about $167,718 a year and a private room at about $178,850, both far above the national medians.3 Those are industry-survey medians, not government figures, and prices 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 program 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. MaineCare, the state's Medicaid program, describes what it may pay for differently by setting. For an apartment or small adult family care home where you get assisted living services, what MaineCare says it may pay for is the assisted living services you receive; room and food are not on that list, so plan on covering them yourself. For a nursing home, MaineCare may pay for the room, food, nursing care, routine supplies and equipment.2 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 yours alone to carry.

How to Vet Memory Care in Maine

You don't have to become an expert in dementia care to make a sound decision. You have to get the facility's written information in hand, hold it up against what you see, and ask the questions it hands you.

Tour at least a couple of places. The goal isn't a flawless one. It's a program whose written information you've read, whose license you've verified with the state, and whose promises you've checked against what's actually happening inside the building.

Learn More

Find personalized help requesting and reading a Maine Memory Care Unit's written information 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.