Attention All Assisted Livings: Time to Check Your Advertising
Effective July 1, 2026 all assisted living facilities providing memory care services must be certified. While most if not all memory care unit and memory care facility operators are preparing or have submitted their application to DSHS, this article is geared towards those assisted livings that do not offer memory care services in a location that restricts dementia resident egress. For the purposes of this article, WHCA will refer to those locations as “traditional assisted living care” or TC for short.
The legislation passed during the 2025 session defines both memory care units and facilities, and memory care services. Assisted livings that do not have buildings, units, cottages, floors, or wings dedicated to the care of residents living with dementia are not required to become certified. However, there are some nuances in the new law that we would like to alert you to, so that your facility does not find itself in crosshairs with DSHS or, likely more serious, the Consumer Protection Act.
ADVERTISING
Ensure that your website, printed brochures, commercials, on-hold telephone recordings, or other advertising methods do not depict your facility as providing memory care or specialized dementia care services. While it’s still completely legal to care for a resident with dementia in TC, the facility cannot advertise that it specializes in this level of care. Many residents with dementia thrive in TC and might never need a dedicated memory care unit or facility to receive the care and services their individual needs require.
RESTRICTED EGRESS
Anytime a resident with dementia cannot move freely to leave the premises, the facility has effectively restricted egress. The definition of memory care facility or memory care unit includes the wording, “if any part of an assisted living facility has restricted egress that prevents residents with cognitive impairment from leaving the facility without accompaniment by staff or another individual, it is sufficient to be considered as a memory care facility or memory care unit requiring certification.”
When thinking of the phrase “restricted egress,” most often one considers a locked door or locked gate that requires a code to leave the unit or facility. Another form of restricted egress, often used in TC, includes a WanderGuard system or similar. These types of systems are typically applied only to residents whose cognition puts them at risk of wandering off the property; as the resident wearing a WanderGuard or similar wearable reaches an exit door, the door locks. If a TC uses a system similar to this and restricts egress for even one resident, either the facility must obtain a memory care certification, find a different way to monitor the resident’s whereabouts that does not restrict egress, or discharge the resident(s) requiring this level of memory care service.
If you have questions about the memory care certification process, or the new draft regulations specific to memory care certification, please email Vicki McNealley.
