What Types of Senior Living Communities Are There?

Know the Options to Make the Right Choice

The search for the right senior living community begins inside you: Senior living communities are designed around the different needs of older adults, so knowing what you need can help you zero in on the community best suited for you.

What do you need?

Some seniors need some sort of professional care and want a community that can help them live and feel their best while receiving that assistance.

Others have few health concerns and simply want active, social, easy living that preserves their lifestyle as much as possible. They might be looking ahead, too, hoping to find an all-encompassing community that can deliver care when it’s needed — or they may be content to compromise with a stand-alone community’s independent lifestyle now and deal with relocation later if they need care.

In this guide to senior living communities, we’ll help you sort through the various types of communities, differentiating stand-alone communities from those that are part of a continuum of care.

Active Adult Communities

Often referred to as 55+ communities, Active Adult communities are designed for healthy seniors who are independent, energetic and eager to continue their purpose-driven living while they decrease social isolation and eliminate many homeownership responsibilities. Residences may be apartments, townhomes, duplexes or free-standing homes in a dedicated neighborhood.

Active Adult communities offer a comfortable setting where residents can come and go as they please. While residents may organize activities around shared interests, the community rarely provides structured programs. It also doesn’t provide health care.

Independent Living Communities

What does “independent living” mean? Similar to Active Adult communities for the ways they support independent, energetic, eager older adults in their self-directed living, Independent Living communities also deliver an array of services and amenities designed to encourage social interaction and health and wellness. Generally, Independent Living residents skew a little older than Active Living residents.

Independent Living communities offer on-site dining venues, fitness centers, libraries, transportation services, arts and crafts rooms, multi-use auditoriums, and a variety of educational, recreational and entertainment programming. Housekeeping services are included, but health services are not.

You’ll probably find condo-like apartments in an Independent Living community — and sometimes single-family homes or duplexes.

Choose a stand-alone Independent Living community when you want the independence of an Active Adult community but prefer additional services and amenities to make it a more fulfilling, enriching lifestyle. You’ll need to be willing to relocate if you eventually need long-term care.
Independent Living in a continuum of care community often serves as the entry point to other levels of service, with some combination of Assisted Living, Memory Care and Skilled Nursing provided on the same campus or under the same roof as Independent Living.

Assisted Living or Residential Living Community

Think of an Assisted Living or Residential Living community as an Independent Living community with built-in daily assistance. For anyone who needs help with their ADLs (activities of daily living) — for example, bathing, dressing, medication management, meal preparation, etc. — the community will provide just enough of a helping hand to ensure you can remain as independent as possible.

Assisted Living or Residential Living communities design individualized plans for care for each resident, focusing on what that person can do on their own and assisting only as necessary with everything else. The assistance varies from a little to a lot, with monthly prices usually reflecting increases in care.

Much like an Independent Living community provides services, amenities and programs, you’ll also find a well-designed and fulfilling lifestyle in these communities. A dining program with three meals daily, game rooms, recreation and fitness areas, group outings, transportation — it’s all part of the plan.

Residences are typically apartments with kitchenettes. Access to skilled caregivers is available 24/7. But memory care and skilled nursing are not available, requiring your relocation if you develop such needs.

Memory Care Communities

Memory Care — or Memory Support — communities address the special needs of those who have Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. Caregivers are highly trained professionals with a knack for engaging residents in a program that stimulates cognitive function and supports overall well-being.

Apartments can be furnished with residents’ familiar belongings, and the community is designed to minimize confusion and risk factors, with measures in place to prevent residents from wandering.

While a stand-alone Memory Care community provides a sophisticated and specialized program of care, it may not be equipped to serve every level of memory impairment. Those who are minimally impaired may succeed in a community that offers Assisted Living-type care. Those with more advanced dementia — they may have difficulty with ambulation or feeding themselves, for example — may need a Skilled Nursing level of service.

Choosing the right Memory Care community relies in large part on discerning the community best suited to the level of need. You can ask, “Is your Memory Care more like Assisted Living or Skilled Nursing?”

Skilled Nursing Communities

Skilled Nursing communities — also known as Long-Term Care communities or, previously, as nursing homes — offer comprehensive medical care for seniors with complex medical needs, chronic conditions or terminal illness. You’ll find round-the-clock nursing, assistance with activities of daily living, medication management, and specialized treatment.

You can also find residential and non-residential rehabilitation services— or Short-Term Skilled Nursing — housed within Skilled Nursing. Following surgery, accident or illness, recovery is hastened with the physical, occupational and speech therapies that rehabilitation services offer.

In a Skilled Nursing community, trained medical professionals work under guidance from a medical director following personalized care plans for each resident. Residences are private and semi-private rooms where residents are monitored 24/7.

Choose a stand-alone Skilled Nursing community for long-term treatment of chronic illness, for end-of-life care, or for rehabilitation services.

Life Plan Communities

Life plan communities are also known as CCRCs, or continuing care retirement communities. In addition to Independent Living, they offer a continuum of care that may include Assisted Living, Residential Living, Memory Care and Skilled Nursing. Some Life Plan communities might not offer the full continuum — perhaps the Assisted Living is broader than usual, making up for the community’s lack of Skilled Nursing, for example.

Independent Living residents in a Life Plan community have priority access to the care levels and, depending on their residency contract, may be eligible for below-market rates. Those who aren’t Independent Living residents may directly access the care levels when space is available.

Life Plan communities typically require an entrance fee and monthly maintenance fee. Residents find a wide range of services and amenities, including fitness centers, restaurant-style dining options, recreational activities and social events. Plus, there’s the advantage of having all the care they’ll ever need in one familiar place. They can move between levels of care as needed, ensuring security for their future. This is particularly attractive to couples who know neither partner will need to leave the community to receive care.

Choose the inclusive Life Plan community when you want to secure your future with one move.
Levels of care vary by community, so be clear about which are included in the community you look at. Plus, to be clear about what you can expect when advancing through levels of care, ask for all the details about contractual arrangements and costs.