Dementia Care in Alaska: A Caregiver's Guide (2026)

Dementia care in Alaska means stretching a thin network of programs across a very large state, and you do not have to map it alone or pay for all of it yourself. The Alzheimer's Association estimates that 8,400 Alaskans age 65 and older were living with Alzheimer's dementia in 2020, and it counts about 25,000 Alaska caregivers of people with Alzheimer's or other dementias in 2025.1

Dementia caregiving is its own kind of hard: the long arc, the behavioral changes, the safety worries, the grief that starts before any loss. This guide maps the Alaska-specific help available in 2026, from the free 24/7 helpline to Medicaid respite to the programs that can pay you for the care you already provide.

The right first call and the right program can turn an impossible year into a workable one.

In This Guide

• Where to Start With Dementia Care in Alaska
• Who Pays for Dementia Care in Alaska
• How to Request an Assessment
• Other Ways to Get Help
• Respite for Dementia Caregivers
• Handling Wandering, Driving, and Legal Planning
• Alaska Dementia Caregiving, by the Numbers
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

Where to Start With Dementia Care in Alaska

When a diagnosis lands, or when caregiving starts to outpace what you can manage alone, two contacts open most doors in Alaska:

1. The Alzheimer's Association 24/7 Helpline: 1-800-272-3900. This free service for people living with dementia, caregivers, families and the public connects you with a live person who can provide information, local resources, crisis assistance and emotional support. Help is available in your preferred language through bilingual staff or an interpreter service covering more than 200 languages. All conversations are confidential, with one exception to know: Helpline Care Consultants are mandated reporters, required by law to report abuse or neglect to state authorities if it is reported to them.2
2. Alaska's Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC) network: 1-855-565-2017. The ADRC network serves Alaskans statewide, regardless of age or income level, through regional sites, and helps seniors, people with disabilities and caregivers find services like in-home care, transportation, and Medicaid and Medicare options.2

Beyond those two, Alaska's Family Caregiver Support Program, run by the Division of Senior and Disabilities Services (907-269-3666), serves several groups of caregivers. Two matter most here: adult family members or other informal caregivers age 18 and older caring for someone of any age with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders, and those caring for someone 60 or older. Its services are information and assistance accessing services, respite, caregiver support groups, caregiver training, and supplemental services. The state's instruction is to contact one of the program's grantees; one is the Alzheimer's Disease Resource Agency of Alaska, 1750 Abbott Rd, Anchorage, 907-561-3313.2

Who Pays for Dementia Care in Alaska

No single payer covers everything dementia care demands. Most Alaska families assemble a plan from several sources, and which ones apply depends on income, assets, and whether the person you care for is a veteran.

Alaska Medicaid (Alaskans Living Independently Waiver)

The Medicaid Alaskans Living Independently (ALI) Waiver is one of five home and community-based services waivers Alaska operates. Its purpose is to let Medicaid-eligible people at least 21 years old with physical disabilities or functional needs associated with aging, who might otherwise live in a skilled nursing facility for more than 30 days a year, remain in their homes and communities. It is administered by the Alaska Department of Health and operated by the department's Division of Senior and Disabilities Services (SDS). The waiver covers eleven services: adult day services, care coordination, respite, environmental modifications, host home care, meals, nursing oversight and care management, residential supported living services, specialized medical equipment, specialized private duty nursing, and transportation.3

Respite, meant to relieve a primary unpaid caregiver, is capped: Alaska regulation 7 AAC 130.280(c) limits it to 520 hours of hourly respite a year, unless the department approves more because going without would risk institutionalization, and 14 days of daily respite a year. Respite can also be family-directed: with a certified respite provider's help, the primary unpaid caregiver may train and supervise the people chosen to care for your loved one while that caregiver is away. An SDS-certified provider may employ a relative (someone related to your loved one by blood, marriage or adoption who has no legal duty under state law to support them) to provide some select services, with limitations, and respite is one of them. Legally responsible individuals, who typically include the spouse of a waiver participant, are not permitted to provide any waiver service, so a husband or wife cannot be the paid respite provider.3

There is no waitlist: anyone who meets the eligibility criteria, including the nursing-facility level of care, and agrees to receive care under the program may do so. That is not unlimited capacity, though. The approved waiver sets a maximum of 3,054 participants for each of its five years, and Alaska must ask CMS to change that number.3

Getting Paid to Care for a Loved One With Dementia

Many Alaska dementia caregivers can be paid for the care they provide, through Medicaid or, for veterans' families, VA programs. Who can be paid depends on the program: under the ALI Waiver, an SDS-certified provider may employ a relative who has no legal duty to support your loved one for some select services, with limitations, but a spouse may not provide any waiver service.3 The pathways, who can be hired, and the pay are covered in the Alaska paid family caregiver guide.

VA Benefits (for Veterans)

If the person you care for is a veteran, two VA programs can help. The Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) pays an approved Primary Family Caregiver a monthly stipend, which VA described as nontaxable in its 2020 proposed rule, and a spouse can serve as that caregiver. VA's first screen has four requirements for the veteran, and all four must be true: a VA disability rating (individual or combined) of 70% or higher, discharge from the U.S. military or a date of medical discharge, a need for at least 6 months of continuous, in-person personal care services, and enrollment in VA health care. Meeting those four is necessary but is not the whole test: you and the veteran apply together, and the federal regulation adds four more conditions VA checks during the application, including that the care is given at home and that the same personal care is not already being regularly provided by another person or agency. Once approved, the caregiver must also enroll in direct deposit through the VA customer engagement portal, because the monthly stipend is not paid without it. PCAFC also provides caregiver training, counseling, and at least 30 days of respite care a year. The stipend is not a flat national figure; it is calculated from the federal pay scale for the veteran's local area, so the dollar amount varies by where the veteran lives.4 Separately, Aid and Attendance (A&A) is an increased monthly pension: a veteran or surviving spouse who gets a VA pension may be eligible if they meet at least one of VA's listed requirements, such as needing another person's help with daily activities like bathing, feeding, and dressing, or being a patient in a nursing home due to the loss of mental or physical abilities related to a disability. For a veteran, the pension itself requires wartime service, a discharge that was not dishonorable, an age-or-disability test, and income and net-worth limits.4,5 For information on support services, counseling and education, call the VA Caregiver Support Line, a toll-free number, at 1-855-260-3274, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.6

Medicare

Under Medicare Part B, if a routine or yearly "Wellness" visit turns up signs of cognitive impairment, Medicare covers a separate visit to fully assess cognitive function and build a written care plan, a service that can help diagnose dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. After the Part B deductible, you pay 20% of the Medicare-approved amount. Medicare also covers part-time or intermittent skilled home health care for a homebound patient, and hospice care when a hospice doctor and the person's regular doctor certify a terminal illness with a life expectancy of 6 months or less and the person chooses comfort care instead of care to cure the illness. But Medicare does not pay for long-term custodial care (the ongoing, non-medical help with bathing, dressing, and using the bathroom that dementia eventually requires) when that is the only care a person needs; families typically cover that out of pocket, through Medicaid if eligible, or with long-term-care insurance.7 Where it operates, the GUIDE Model, a nationwide CMS program that began July 1, 2024, adds dementia care navigation, a 24/7 support line, caregiver training, and respite. For the performance year that began July 1, 2026, GUIDE respite is capped at $2,625 a year per eligible patient, and CMS pays the participating provider, not the family. Only patients with moderate or severe dementia whose primary caregiver is a relative or an unpaid nonrelative, and who do not live in assisted living or another residential care community, qualify for GUIDE respite. GUIDE itself is not open to people enrolled in Medicare Advantage or in the Medicare hospice benefit, and the person must have a Medicare provider enrolled in the model.7 Ask your neurologist or the Alzheimer's Association helpline whether a GUIDE provider operates near you.

How to Request an Assessment

Qualifying for the ALI Waiver takes two separate decisions by two different offices. The Division of Public Assistance (DPA), not SDS, decides whether your loved one meets Medicaid income and resource limits, through an interview and application. The SDS Intake and Assessment Unit decides whether they meet the nursing-facility level of care; that assessment scores memory and cognition, and behavior including mood and problem behaviors, alongside physical functioning, so dementia symptoms bear directly on the result. Applicants reach the waiver through private SDS-certified care coordinators, who help complete the initial application for SDS to assess level of care. Questions go to the Division of Senior and Disabilities Services at 907-269-3666 or doh.sds.info@alaska.gov. Once your loved one qualifies, services are planned by their team and approved by SDS through a submitted support plan. It helps to have income and asset records ready and a clear picture of the daily help your loved one needs.3

Other Ways to Get Help

If the person you care for does not qualify financially for Medicaid, or while a waiver application is being decided, you still have options. Alaska's Family Caregiver Support Program includes respite, caregiver support groups and caregiver training, and it lists caregivers of a person of any age with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders among the groups eligible for its services. The state directs caregivers to contact one of its National Family Caregiver Support grantees, such as the Alzheimer's Disease Resource Agency of Alaska (907-561-3313).2 Private-pay adult day programs and in-home aides fill gaps in the meantime, and families with too much income for Medicaid but too little to fund years of care should look into Medicaid planning early. See Medicaid Planning Strategies for the mechanics.

Respite for Dementia Caregivers

Respite is what makes the long haul survivable. In Alaska, respite comes from the ALI Waiver for people who qualify, within its yearly caps, from the Family Caregiver Support Program through its grantees, and from adult day programs.2,3 For the full picture, see Respite Care in Alaska.

A few days a week at a dementia-capable adult day program often does double duty: it gives you reliable hours back, and it gives your loved one structure and company during the day.

Handling Wandering, Driving, and Legal Planning

Some of the hardest moments in dementia care are the ones where you have to take something away (the car keys, the front-door latitude, the checkbook) while your loved one can still feel the loss. There is no painless way to do it, only a kinder-and-sooner one. Dementia raises issues other caregiving does not: wandering, driving, sundowning, and the legal and financial planning that needs to happen while your loved one can still participate. The Alzheimer's Association 24/7 Helpline (1-800-272-3900) connects you with a live person who can provide information, local resources, crisis assistance and emotional support when these moments arrive.2

Alaska Dementia Caregiving, by the Numbers

The Alzheimer's Association's 2026 Facts and Figures report estimates that 8,400 Alaskans age 65 and older were living with Alzheimer's dementia in 2020, 8.8 percent of that age group. For 2025 the same report counts about 25,000 Alaska caregivers of people with Alzheimer's or other dementias, who provide about 40 million hours of unpaid care a year, valued at about $929 million.1

If the work feels overwhelming, that is not a personal failing. It is the reality of a condition that demands more, for longer, than almost any other.

Learn More

Find personalized help caring for a loved one with dementia in Alaska 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.