Dementia housing without locked wards? It's a small but growing movement

"The place her mom lives now is known as a continuing care retirement community, or CCRC, called Loomis Lakeside at Reeds Landing in Springfield, Mass. CCRCs offer multiple levels of care, from independent living to assisted living to memory care to a skilled nursing unit. According to Lisa McCracken, head of research and analytics at NIC the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care the number of memory care units in the U.S. has grown 62% in the last decade. But this community is unusual: it doesn't have a memory care unit. It's part of a movement to make living with dementia less segregated and more integrated."

"Rita Orr, Rogers' mother, lives in the skilled nursing wing these days. She can walk around the facility as much or as little as she likes including going outside. Which is fine with her daughter. "She sees freedom, but she's OK," Rogers says. "To have a locked door? That wouldn't go well with her.""

"Lori Todd, executive director of Loomis Lakeside at Reeds Landing, says people sometimes try to leave locked memory care units for the very reason that they feel confined. Here, she says, they want those with dementia to live the best life they can, in community. "What we do is meet them where they are, and work with the other residents to teach them how to be good neighbors" to those living with dementia, says Todd. "So we're not isolating them, just as we wouldn't isolate people that all had congestive heart failure or diabetes.""

Janice Rogers placed her elderly mother, Rita, in Loomis Lakeside at Reeds Landing, a continuing care retirement community in Springfield, Mass. The mother developed dementia and now lives in the skilled nursing wing. The community offers multiple levels of care but intentionally does not maintain a locked memory care unit. Staff prioritize freedom to roam and social inclusion, allowing residents with dementia to participate in the wider community. Administrators and family emphasize teaching neighbors to be supportive rather than isolating residents. Nationally, memory care units have grown 62 percent in the last decade, yet some communities pursue integration instead of segregation.

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