If you're trying to find the right memory care for a parent in South Carolina, the state hands you a tool most families never know exists. South Carolina doesn't license "memory care" as its own thing, but a law requires any place that markets an Alzheimer's special care unit to put in writing exactly how that care differs from what it gives everyone else. This guide turns that written disclosure into a vetting tool, sets what it costs, and walks you through how to use it.
In This Guide
- Key Takeaways
- What Memory Care in South Carolina Is
- The Alzheimer's Special Care Disclosure
- What It Costs
- How to Vet a Memory-Care Setting
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Memory Care in South Carolina Is
When you start calling places, "memory care" gets thrown around as though it's a single licensed product you can shop and compare apples to apples. In South Carolina it isn't. The state doesn't issue a separate memory-care license at all. What you're really looking at is dementia care delivered inside one of two settings: a Community Residential Care Facility, or a nursing home for someone who needs round-the-clock skilled care.
Most families touring "memory care" are looking at the first kind. In South Carolina, what the rest of the country calls assisted living is licensed as a Community Residential Care Facility, a setting that provides room, board, and personal care and supervision to people who don't need a nursing home's around-the-clock skilled care. These facilities are licensed and inspected under state Regulation 61-84 by the Department of Public Health (DPH). That oversight moved to DPH when the former Department of Health and Environmental Control split into two agencies on July 1, 2024; licenses issued before that date stay valid. When the dementia is advanced enough to need skilled nursing, the setting becomes a nursing home instead.
So the building itself carries a license, but it isn't a memory-care license. A facility can be a perfectly good CRCF and still be a poor fit for advanced dementia, and nothing in the license alone tells you which. That's the gap the disclosure law fills. The South Carolina Alzheimer's Special Care Disclosure Act, South Carolina Code Section 44-36-510 and following, says that a facility holding itself out as offering specialized Alzheimer's or dementia care has to disclose, in writing, how its dementia care actually differs from the care it provides everyone else. Instead of a credential you look up, you get a document the facility is legally required to produce, and it's the most useful thing you can ask for walking in the door.
The Alzheimer's Special Care Disclosure
Here's why this law matters to you in practice. Any facility can hang a "memory care" sign and use words like "specialized" and "secure." The disclosure act draws a line under that. If a place markets an Alzheimer's special care unit or program, it can't leave "special care" as a vague promise. It has to commit to paper how that care differs from the care it gives its other residents, so you can read the difference instead of taking it on faith.
That single requirement reframes how you should think about a tour. The disclosure is the document that lets you compare what "special care" actually means from one place to the next, on the facility's own written word. Below is how to put it to work, paired with the questions to bring to any place you visit.
| What the disclosure addresses | What to ask the facility |
|---|---|
| How the special care differs from care given to other residents | "Show me, in writing, what a resident in your special care unit gets that a regular CRCF resident here doesn't." This is the whole point of the law, so start here |
| Staffing on the dementia unit | "How many caregivers cover this unit overnight and on weekends, not just at 2 p.m.? How many are trained in dementia care?" A unit can look well staffed during a daytime tour and thin out badly after dark |
| Who the unit can serve, and when it discharges | "At what point would you decide my parent's needs have outgrown this CRCF and require a nursing home?" Read this before a crisis, not during one |
| How dementia care is delivered day to day | "Walk me through a typical day, how you handle wandering or agitation, and how you update the care plan as dementia progresses" |
| The full cost in writing | "Give me the base rate and every memory-care line item separately." An advertised base rate can hide what the dementia care actually adds |
If a place advertising memory care can't or won't give you a written disclosure of how its special care differs from its standard care, treat that as a real signal. The law is on your side here; a facility that genuinely runs a dementia program should have no trouble showing you what it does differently.
What It Costs
Cost is usually the part families brace for, and there's no clean single number for memory care in South Carolina. The state doesn't publish one, and because memory care isn't surveyed as its own 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 a South Carolina CRCF runs a median of about $5,200 a month (roughly $62,400 a year), which sits at or slightly below the national figure of about $5,900. Memory care costs more than that, here as everywhere, because dementia care means heavier staffing across every shift, a secured and monitored layout, and more hands-on supervision. How much more depends on the facility, its size, and the level of care, with the Charleston, Greenville, and Hilton Head areas generally running higher than rural parts of the state. Treat memory care as a premium on top of the assisted-living base, not a fixed figure, and be wary of any source quoting one precise statewide number for it.
If dementia has progressed to where your parent needs a nursing home, the math changes again. The same survey put a semi-private nursing-home room in South Carolina at about $8,958 a month and a private room at about $9,536, both close to or slightly below the national medians. These are industry-survey medians, not government numbers, so use them to set expectations, then get a specific written quote from any place you're serious about.
Most families pay for this privately. The state's Optional State Supplementation (OSS) program provides a monthly cash supplement to help some low-income residents of licensed CRCFs afford care; OSS has its own income and resource limits and is separate from nursing-home Medicaid. It won't cover a full memory-care bill, but for a low-income parent it's worth checking before you rule out a place on price alone.
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 written disclosure in your hands, confirm the license, and ask the right questions while you're standing there.
- Ask for the written Alzheimer's special care disclosure first. A facility marketing an Alzheimer's special care unit has to be able to tell you, in writing, how that special care differs from its standard care. Read that side by side with what the salesperson told you on the tour, and see whether the substance matches the pitch.
- Confirm the setting is a licensed CRCF. The building should be a Community Residential Care Facility licensed under Regulation 61-84 by the Department of Public Health, or a licensed nursing home if your parent needs skilled care. A license issued before the July 2024 DPH transition is still valid, so don't be thrown if the paperwork references the old agency.
- Pin down staffing for every shift. Ask who covers the dementia unit overnight and on weekends and how many of them are trained in dementia care. A unit that looks well staffed during your midday tour can thin out badly after dark.
- Get the discharge terms and the full cost in writing. Ask at what point the CRCF would decide your parent needs a nursing home instead, and ask for the base rate with every memory-care line item broken out separately. Two places with the same headline price can land far apart once the dementia-care charges are itemized.
- Tour at least a couple of places, around a mealtime. Visit when staffing and the mood of a place are hardest to stage. The goal isn't a perfect place; it's one whose special care, staffing, and fees you understand going in, because you read them rather than took them on trust.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. South Carolina does not issue a standalone memory-care license. Dementia care is delivered inside a Community Residential Care Facility, which is licensed under Regulation 61-84 by the Department of Public Health, or inside a nursing home when someone needs round-the-clock skilled care. What governs the dementia-specific care is the South Carolina Alzheimer's Special Care Disclosure Act, South Carolina Code Section 44-36-510 and following, which requires a written disclosure rather than a separate license.
It's a South Carolina law, found at South Carolina Code Section 44-36-510 and following, that applies to any facility holding itself out as offering specialized Alzheimer's or dementia care. Such a facility must disclose, in writing, how its dementia care differs from the care it gives its other residents, so that families can compare what "special care" actually means at one place versus another. That written disclosure is your single best tool for comparing places and holding one to what it promised on the tour.
There's no reliable single statewide figure for memory care alone. Use the assisted-living base as your anchor, about $5,200 a month per the Genworth/CareScout 2024 survey, and expect memory care to run higher because of the heavier round-the-clock staffing and the secured, monitored setting. Prices generally run higher around Charleston, Greenville, and Hilton Head than in rural areas, and the advertised rate is usually a base that rises as care needs grow, so ask for every memory-care line item in writing and get a quote from any place you're considering.
Most assisted living and memory care in South Carolina is private-pay. The state's Optional State Supplementation program offers a small monthly cash supplement to some low-income residents of licensed CRCFs, but it has its own income and resource limits and is separate from nursing-home Medicaid. If dementia progresses to where your parent needs a nursing home, nursing-home Medicaid is a separate program with its own eligibility rules, so confirm before counting on either.
A Community Residential Care Facility provides room, board, personal care, and supervision for people who don't need around-the-clock skilled nursing, and it's where most "memory care" in South Carolina is delivered. A nursing home provides skilled nursing care for someone whose dementia or other conditions require it. One of the most important questions to ask any CRCF is at what point it would decide a resident's needs have outgrown it and require a move to a nursing home.
Learn More
- Assisted Living in South Carolina
- Nursing Homes in South Carolina
- Home Care vs. Home Health in South Carolina
- Caregiver Burnout: Signs and Support
- Medicaid Planning Strategies
Find personalized help comparing memory care in South Carolina 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.