Kinds of senior care

What kinds of senior care are available around Boise?

Six main kinds: assisted living and memory care in IDHW-licensed RALFs, certified nursing homes, in-home care, Medicare home health and hospice, plus certified family homes for one to four adults.

Assisted living

Idaho licenses assisted living as residential assisted living facilities: supervision, personal help, meals and lodging for three or more adults.

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Memory care

Memory care in Idaho means secured beds inside a licensed RALF, for people with dementia who may wander.

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Nursing homes

Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing homes give 24-hour skilled nursing and short-term rehab, rated by CMS.

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In-home care

Paid caregivers who help with bathing, meals, errands and companionship at home, by the hour.

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Home health

Medicare-certified skilled nursing and therapy visits at home, ordered by a doctor.

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Hospice care

Comfort-focused care for people with a life expectancy of six months or less, at home or in a facility.

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How do we know which kind of care a parent needs?

Start with what a normal day looks like: help needed with daily tasks points to home care or assisted living, wandering points to memory care, and skilled nursing needs point to a nursing home or home health.

A doctor's functional assessment, or the pre-admission assessment every Idaho RALF must do, turns that picture into a care level.

Which kinds of care can be combined?

Many: home health and hospice can visit a resident in assisted living or at home, in-home care can fill gaps around family help, and adult day programs can give a caregiver a break while a parent still lives at home.

What cannot be combined is assisted living with round-the-clock skilled nursing; when that is needed, a nursing home is usually the answer.

What about adult day care in the Treasure Valley?

Adult day programs give daytime supervision and activities; Idaho Medicaid's A&D waiver lists adult day health among its services, and some RALFs offer hourly adult care under their license, with written policies the rules require.

CareScout publishes no Idaho adult day median, so ask each program for its daily rate.

How does Idaho oversee each kind of care?

IDHW licenses assisted living and certifies family homes; CMS certifies and rates nursing homes, home health agencies and hospices, with IDHW staff carrying out the federal inspections in Idaho.

That is why our directory shows IDHW survey records for assisted living and CMS figures for the other care types.