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 a licensed assisted housing program, and any program that runs a memory care unit has to give you a written disclosure statement describing how it cares for residents with Alzheimer's or dementia. This guide explains what that disclosure must cover, 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 a Memory-Care Setting
- 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. Knowing that before you tour a single place changes what you look for, because it tells you where the real protection lives: in a document the program is required 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. 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 and are licensed by level according to size. A memory care unit can sit inside either one. 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. Under the Maine Memory Care Disclosure Law, passed in 2019 as Resolve 2019, Chapter 106, the legislature directed Chapter 113 to be amended so that any assisted housing program operating an Alzheimer's, dementia, or memory care unit has to provide a written disclosure statement. The statement is posted in the unit and given to prospective and current residents. The point is to stop "memory care" from being a marketing label and turn it into a set of written claims a family can actually read and hold the program to.
One thing to keep straight: Maine's rule centers on disclosure and dementia-specific staff training, not on a fixed staff-to-resident ratio or a set number of training hours. The state doesn't lock those numbers into the rule. What it requires is that the unit tell you, in writing, how it staffs and trains for dementia, so you can read it and judge it. That puts more on you as a family, which is exactly why reading the disclosure closely matters so much.
What the Disclosure Tells You
The written disclosure is where the word "memory care" stops being a sales pitch and becomes something you can pin down. Because Maine requires any memory care unit to put its approach in writing, you don't have to take a tour guide's reassurance on faith. You get a document, and you can read it before a visit and again after, checking it against what you actually saw.
The disclosure has to describe four things in particular: the care and services specific to the memory care unit; how the unit is staffed to meet residents' needs; the staff training specific to Alzheimer's and dementia care; and the therapeutic activities the unit offers. The state can also require additional information. 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.
| What the disclosure must describe | What to ask, and what to check on a visit |
|---|---|
| Care and services specific to the unit | Ask how the unit's care differs from the program's general assisted housing, then watch whether that difference is real on the floor |
| How the unit is staffed | Ask how many caregivers are on each shift, including overnight, and whether staffing holds when residents need more help |
| Dementia-specific staff training | Ask what the Alzheimer's and dementia training covers, who completes it, and whether new staff finish it before working alone |
| Therapeutic activities | Ask to see a real day's schedule, and whether activities are adapted as a resident's cognition declines |
Read the staffing and training sections most closely. Because Maine doesn't set a fixed ratio or a required number of training hours, the disclosure is your main window into whether the unit is actually built for dementia or just labeled that way. 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 Genworth/CareScout 2024 Cost of Care Survey, the most recent state-level data, assisted living in Maine runs a median of about $8,712 a month (roughly $104,544 a year), well above the national median of about $70,800 a year. 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 $146,364 a year and a private room at about $157,860, both above the national medians. 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. Assisted housing in Maine is largely private-pay for the room-and-board portion. MaineCare, the state's Medicaid program, does not pay an assisted housing resident's room and board, which stays the resident's responsibility, though Supplemental Security Income and a state supplement can help. MaineCare can help cover the care-services portion in residential care settings through its private non-medical institution and personal-care pathways, so a residential care facility with a memory care unit may be partly covered in a way a private apartment-based assisted living facility is not. 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 a Memory-Care Setting
You don't have to become an expert in dementia care to make a sound decision. You have to get the disclosure in hand, hold it up against what you see, and ask the questions it hands you.
- Ask for the written disclosure statement. Any memory care unit in Maine has to disclose its approach in writing and post it in the unit, so request it early and read it before you tour. A program that hesitates to hand over a document it's required to provide is telling you something.
- Confirm the underlying license. The disclosure describes the dementia care, but the program still has to hold a valid assisted housing license to operate. Confirm it with the Maine DHHS Division of Licensing and Certification, not just with the program, and check whether it's an assisted living facility or a residential care facility, since that affects both the setting and what MaineCare may help cover.
- Pin down staffing and dementia training. Because Maine doesn't set a fixed ratio or training-hour count, the disclosure is your main window here, so ask what the Alzheimer's and dementia training covers, who completes it, whether new staff finish it before working alone, and how many caregivers are on each shift, including overnight. Specific answers are a good sign; vague reassurance isn't.
- Check the therapeutic activities against a real day. The disclosure has to describe the unit's activities, so ask to see an actual daily schedule and whether activities adapt as cognition declines, then watch whether residents are engaged in them when you visit.
- Get the costs in writing. Ask for a written breakdown of the base rate, what memory care adds, how care levels get reassessed as dementia progresses, and what triggers an increase. Bring the contract home and read the refund and discharge terms without a salesperson in the room.
Tour at least a couple of places. The goal isn't a flawless one. It's a program whose disclosure 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Maine doesn't issue a separate memory care license. Dementia care is provided inside a licensed assisted housing program, not under a license of its own, so a memory care unit sits within an already-licensed assisted living facility or residential care facility. The program is licensed by the Maine DHHS Division of Licensing and Certification under Chapter 113.
It's a written statement that any assisted housing program operating an Alzheimer's, dementia, or memory care unit must post in the unit and give to prospective and current residents. It has to describe the care and services specific to the unit, how the unit is staffed, the staff training specific to Alzheimer's and dementia care, and the therapeutic activities offered. It came from the Maine Memory Care Disclosure Law (Resolve 2019, Chapter 106), which directed the assisted housing rule to be amended.
Not a fixed one written into the rule. Maine's approach centers on disclosure and dementia-specific staff training rather than a single mandated ratio or a set number of training hours. The unit has to tell you in writing how it staffs and trains for dementia, which is why reading that section closely and asking specific questions about each shift matters so much.
There's no reliable single statewide figure for memory care alone. Use the assisted-living base as your anchor, about $8,712 a month per the Genworth/CareScout 2024 survey, and expect memory care to run higher because of the added staff time, dementia training, and secured setting it requires. Maine's costs run above the national medians across every setting, so the advertised rate is usually a high base that still rises as care needs grow; get a written breakdown from any place you're considering.
MaineCare does not pay an assisted housing resident's room and board, which stays the resident's responsibility, though Supplemental Security Income and a state supplement can help. MaineCare can help cover the care-services portion in residential care settings through its private non-medical institution and personal-care pathways, so a residential care facility with a memory care unit may be partly covered in a way a private apartment-based assisted living facility is not. It's worth checking eligibility early rather than assuming the entire bill is private-pay.
Learn More
Find personalized help requesting and reading a Maine memory care unit's disclosure statement 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.