Straight answers about residential memory care in Shelton, Connecticut, from cost and Medicare to dementia care, safety, and how our small homes work.
A residential memory care home is a small senior residence, often an actual house in a neighborhood, that cares for a small number of residents living with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. Because the setting is small, it offers a home-like environment and a high staff-to-resident ratio that a large facility cannot. Just Like Home is exactly this model: two real houses in Shelton, Connecticut, one on Dogwood Drive and one on Long Hill Avenue, each caring for only six or seven residents.
In a large facility, a resident is one of dozens and care is organized around the building. In a small residential home, a resident is one of six or seven, cared for by consistent caregivers who know them by name. Just Like Home keeps each home to six or seven residents so daily life stays calm, familiar, and personal, with routines that adapt to each individual rather than to an institutional schedule.
Both provide housing, meals, and help with daily activities, but memory care adds a layer built specifically for dementia: a secured environment that prevents unsafe wandering, caregivers trained in dementia care, a higher staff-to-resident ratio, and structured daily routines that reduce confusion. Assisted living suits someone who needs physical help but is cognitively stable; memory care suits someone whose memory loss creates safety needs. Just Like Home provides memory care only, so every home and every routine is built around dementia.
Memory care is a residential, home-like setting for people living with dementia who need a secure environment and dementia-trained support, not skilled medical treatment. A nursing home provides 24-hour skilled medical and nursing care for people with serious medical needs. Memory care feels like a home with safe boundaries; a nursing home is a medical setting. Families often choose memory care when a loved one needs safety and supervision for dementia but does not need daily skilled nursing.
Yes. Both the Dogwood and Long Hill homes are secure, gated residential homes, designed so residents can move about the house and grounds freely and safely while staying protected from wandering into unsafe situations. Good memory care is safety with dignity, a real home with safe boundaries, never a locked ward or an institution.
Dementia is an umbrella term for a group of symptoms, including memory loss and decline in thinking and reasoning, caused by an underlying disease. Alzheimer’s is the most common disease that causes dementia, accounting for an estimated 60 to 80 percent of cases. In other words, dementia describes the symptoms and Alzheimer’s is one specific disease that produces them. Other causes include vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, and frontotemporal dementia.
Sundowning is increased confusion and agitation that people living with dementia may experience in the late afternoon and evening. It can include restlessness, anxiety, pacing, and difficulty sleeping. It is not a disease; it is a pattern of behaviors that can be eased with steady daily routines, good daytime light, and calm evenings. A small residential home is well suited to managing sundowning, because a consistent routine and familiar caregivers in a quiet home reduce the triggers.
Six residents at our Dogwood home and seven at our Long Hill home. Keeping each home small is deliberate: it is what allows the personal attention, familiar routine, and calm environment that families are looking for.
Just Like Home maintains a high staff-to-resident ratio of roughly one caregiver to every three residents, far more attentive than a typical large facility. A strong ratio, especially in memory care, means faster response and more individual attention through the day.
No. Memory care is custodial long-term care, and Medicare does not pay for the room, board, or daily care in a memory care home. Medicare still covers a resident’s medical needs, such as doctor visits, hospital care, and prescriptions, but the monthly cost of the home is paid privately, through long-term care insurance, or through VA benefits for those who qualify. This is the single most common misunderstanding families bring to a first conversation.
Most families use a combination of private pay, long-term care insurance, and, for eligible veterans and surviving spouses, the VA’s Aid and Attendance benefit. Just Like Home accepts private pay, long-term care insurance, and VA benefits. Because Medicare does not cover memory care, planning the funding mix early makes the move far less stressful, and we are glad to talk families through the options.
Just Like Home is all-inclusive: one monthly rate covers care, meals, and daily support, with no tiered level-of-care surcharges added after move-in. Many large facilities quote a lower starting rate and then bill added care fees after an assessment, so the real bill ends up higher than advertised. We are glad to give families a clear all-in monthly figure on a call or during a visit.
Just Like Home operates two memory care homes in Shelton, Connecticut: the Dogwood home at 62 Dogwood Drive and the Long Hill home at 757 Long Hill Avenue. Both are in quiet residential neighborhoods and serve families across the lower Naugatuck Valley and greater Shelton area.
The best way to understand Just Like Home is to see it in person. Call Deirdre at (203) 689-7562 to arrange a personal visit to either home. Guided visits are by appointment, and you can also request our free Senior Housing Guide.
Every family’s situation is different. Call Deirdre directly to talk through your loved one’s needs, tour our Dogwood and Long Hill homes, and receive our free Senior Housing Guide to help you feel confident about the next step.
The best way to understand Just Like Home is to visit in person. We would love to show you around our Shelton homes and answer anything still on your mind.
