Sponsor
The author(s) declared that financial support was received for this work and/or its publication. This research, including data collection, analysis and writing, was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging to Thomas & Jutkowitz (grant # RF1AG082308).
Published In
Frontiers in Dementia
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-9-2026
Subjects
Alzheimer’s disease, assisted living, care partner, long-term care, public policy
Abstract
Introduction: A large share of assisted living (AL) residents have a diagnosis of dementia or cognitive impairment, and these individuals can benefit from person-centered care and family-involved care. This study examines whether and how states’ AL licenses address these topics.MethodsThis research analyzed a national database of 249 unique licensing requirements that govern 35,602 ALs in all states and associated regulations, including those that govern memory care (MC) services. We reviewed each regulation for the presence of person-centered or family involved care and then used content analysis of license requirements with at least one relevant policy to identify key categories and regulatory specificity.ResultsA larger share of AL with licenses that govern MC services are covered by person-centered care policies (44%) and family-involved policies (62%), compared to AL without MC-specific requirements (20 and 32% respectively). Key categories of person-centered care included staff training, care planning procedures, and social activities; and family-involved care included care planning, direct involvement in providing care, and support for families. Few states’ licenses contained highly specific regulations.DiscussionThis study reveals substantial variation in whether and how states define and regulate person-centered and family-involved care for people living with dementia in AL. MC-specific licenses are roughly twice as likely to require these policies, but fewer than two-thirds of MC-AL communities are covered. State licenses take different approaches to categorizing and specifying these policies. These findings suggest uneven application of core principles of AL associated with quality of life and satisfaction.
Rights
© 2026 Carder, Smith, Bunker, Hua, Hsu, Boun, Ainsworth, Thomas and Jutkowitz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.3389/frdem.2026.1824907
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44807
Citation Details
Carder, P., Smith, L., Bunker, J. N., Hua, C. L., Hsu, E.-C., Boun, I., Ainsworth, O. M., Thomas, K. S., & Jutkowitz, E. (2026). How do US states define person-centered and family-involved care in assisted living regulations. Frontiers in Dementia, 5.