Memory Care in Wyoming (2026): Level 2 & Cost

Wyoming doesn't issue a separate memory care license. Dementia care is built into the state's assisted living facility licensure, and a facility running a secure dementia unit must hold the higher Level 2 license.1 This guide explains what that means, what to verify, what it costs, and who pays.

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• How Wyoming Regulates Memory Care
• What the Level 2 Secure-Unit License Requires
• What It Costs and Who Pays
• How to Vet a Memory-Care Setting
• Frequently Asked Questions

How Wyoming Regulates Memory Care

When you start calling facilities, "memory care" gets thrown around as if it were one licensed thing you could shop for and line up side by side. In Wyoming it isn't. The state never created a separate memory-care license. Instead, it folds dementia care into the assisted living system, and the protection that matters lives in which version of the assisted living license a facility holds. Knowing that before your first tour changes what you look for.

Here's the structure. Assisted living in Wyoming is licensed by the Wyoming Department of Health Healthcare Licensing and Surveys office, under the department's Assisted Living Facility rules.2 Wyoming uses a single assisted-living facility license, and the license definition expressly includes facilities with secured units and facilities dedicated to the special care of people with Alzheimer's disease or other dementia.2 So memory care isn't a separate building type you license; it's a kind of assisted living the state's own rules name.

What distinguishes a true memory-care setting is the license level. A facility that operates a secure dementia unit must be licensed at the higher Level 2, which carries added requirements for staff and resident care.1 That Level 2 secure-unit license is, in practice, Wyoming's memory-care standard. The effect is that "memory care" here isn't a marketing label you have to take on faith. It's tied to a license a facility either holds or doesn't, and a family can ask one direct question: is this facility licensed at Level 2 for a secure dementia unit?

So a Wyoming memory-care setting carries something you can check with the state, not just with the facility. The license still matters if your loved one's dementia comes with heavy medical needs, because an assisted living facility may not be set up to provide the level of skilled nursing a person eventually requires. A Level 2 secure unit is a dementia standard inside assisted living, not a substitute for a nursing home.

What the Level 2 Secure-Unit License Requires

Once you know to ask for Level 2, the next question is what that license actually buys your family. Wyoming attaches added requirements to a facility that operates a secure dementia unit, above what's required of standard assisted living.1 Two of those requirements are worth understanding before a tour: how staff are prepared for dementia, and who has to be on the unit around the clock.

On training, Level 2 requires direct-care staff to complete at least 12 hours of dementia-related continuing education every year.1 That's the difference Wyoming is trying to guarantee: the people working a secure unit have specific preparation for dementia, not just general assisted living experience. The rule sets a floor of 12 hours a year; ask the facility to describe its training in concrete terms, who receives it, and whether new staff complete it before working alone on the unit.

On staffing, Level 2 requires at least one licensed nurse or certified nurse assistant to be on duty and inside the secure dementia unit at all times.1 That means someone with clinical training is physically on the unit day and night, not down the hall. Ask how the facility covers that requirement on nights and weekends, and who else works the unit alongside that person. A serious secure unit will be able to walk you through its staffing; a facility that glosses over it is telling you something.

The training and the assessment deserve the closest read, because they're where dementia care most often succeeds or fails. A real secure unit is built so a resident can move and stay safe at once, and it has staff who can de-escalate distress without reaching for a locked door or a sedative as the first answer. Ask the facility to walk you through how it would handle your loved one's specific wandering or behavior. If it can do that concretely, that's a far better sign than a glossy brochure.

What It Costs and Who Pays

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

What you do have is a solid anchor for the base. Per the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey, the most recent state-level data, assisted living in Wyoming runs a median of about $5,325 a month (roughly $63,900 a year), which sits below the national median of about $74,400 a year.3 Memory care costs more than that base, here as everywhere, because a secure dementia unit means more staff time, dementia-specific training, and a setting built for safety. How much more depends on the facility, its size, and how much care your loved one needs. Treat memory care as a premium on top of that assisted-living figure, and be wary of any source quoting one precise statewide memory-care number.

For context on the rest of the care continuum, the same survey put a semi-private nursing-home room in Wyoming at about $118,990 a year (roughly $9,916 a month), above the national median, and a private room at about $131,081 a year (roughly $10,923 a month). In-home care is Wyoming's most expensive category in relative terms: beginning with the 2025 survey CareScout merged its former homemaker and home-health-aide categories into a single non-medical caregiver rate, which in Wyoming was the highest in the nation at about $46 an hour (about $8,771 a month, or roughly $105,248 a year, on the survey's basis of 44 hours of care a week).3 These are industry-survey medians, not government figures. Because Wyoming is a small, rural state, its survey figures can swing sharply from year to year, so treat them as rough planning benchmarks that vary within the state and rise as care needs grow. Use them to set expectations, then get a specific written quote from any place you're serious about.

Paying for it is where families often get caught off guard. Wyoming Medicaid can help through its home- and community-based Community Choices Waiver, which covers assisted living facility services, along with case management, respite and other community-based services, for people 65 or older and adults 19 to 64 with a disability who meet a nursing facility level of care; to apply, you must be eligible for Medicaid.2 Dementia care runs for years with a steep bill, 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 regulation to make a sound decision. You have to confirm the license level, understand the dementia training and the round-the-clock staffing rule, and ask the questions the rules hand you.

Tour at least a couple of places. The goal isn't a flawless one. It's a facility whose Level 2 secure-unit license you've verified with the state, whose dementia training you've pinned down, and whose plan for wandering and behavior you've checked against what's actually happening inside the building.

Learn More

Find personalized help confirming a Wyoming facility's Level 2 secure-unit licensure and dementia staffing 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.