Memory Care in Nebraska

Nebraska, known primarily for its expansive cornfields, is appropriately referred to as “The Cornhusker State.” The term is a common nickname for Nebraska locals, and is also the name of the University of Nebraska football team. While the state may be most famous for its role in the agriculture industry, there’s more to Nebraska than just farms. Cities like Omaha and the college town of Lincoln are vibrant cultural hubs with enough activity to rival cities twice their size. Nebraska’s calm, quiet atmosphere, relatively low cost of living, and convenient proximity to major cities like Minneapolis, Denver, and Kansas City make the state an ideal location to retire.

Currently, A Place for Mom partners with more than 30 senior living communities in Nebraska that provide memory care. The median monthly cost of memory care in Nebraska is about $5,500.

Memory care facilities in Nebraska are licensed as assisted living facilities with special care units for people with a dementia diagnosis. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Division of Public Health, licenses and inspects these assisted living with memory care facilities. For assisted living to have a dementia special care unit, a facility must provide specialized care services on top of general assisted living care services. To obtain a license, assisted living facilities with memory care units must meet specific regulations.

Facility requirements

Assisted living facilities with dementia care units are required to offer a habitable and clean environment. Memory care units have some additional facility requirements to help support the specialized needs of a person with dementia. Facilities with this type of specialized assisted living license should provide the following:

• Good lighting
• Comfortable temperatures
• Comfortable sound levels
• Comfortable, furnished common areas
• All utilities, like electricity, gas, sewage, water
• Personalized resident bedrooms
• Private and group activity areas
• Dining areas
• Security call systems
• Signage to help people with dementia way find
• Secured wandering areas

Service requirements

Assisted living facilities with dementia care units are licensed to provide the following types of services to residents on-site:

• Three meals per day
• Access to caregiving staff 24-hours per day
• Personal care services, like assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs)
• Housekeeping and laundry
• Financial management
• Transportation for medical appointments, shopping, and other errands
• Regular nurse assessments
• Some nursing care services
• Medication management
• Behavioral management with staff trained in memory care techniques
• Beauty and barber services
• Spiritual services

Staff requirements

Nebraska requires memory care training requirements for staff members who provide direct care to memory care residents. Administrators of assisted living with memory care units must also have advanced memory care training to understand the specific needs of people with dementia. Some of those training requirements include:

• Staff must complete at least 12 hours of training per year on topics related to the types of care services they provide, e.g., ADL assistance with memory care.
• At least four hours of staff training should be memory care-specific training every year.

Memory care training must include information on the following:

• The Alzheimer’s disease or dementia process
• The facility’s capacity to supervise and provide care to memory-loss residents
• The proper staff approach to the mental and physical care of someone with dementia

Additionally, a registered nurse must oversee all medication administration and nursing care services on-site.

Facility inspection reports and violations

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) provides a License Information System Search for health care facilities and providers throughout the state:

Nebraska DHHS License Information System Search

You can use this search to find licensing and violation information for assisted living with memory care facilities. Researching past violations of a prospective assisted living facility is an important step in your search for quality facilities in your area.

You can search by facility name directly, or you can search your area for the “Assisted Living Facility” service type, and a list of facilities in your area will populate. Click on a prospective facility and review license details and survey/inspection reports that outline any past violations the facility has had. To inquire further about a prospective facility, you can reach out directly to the Department of Health’s Licensure Unit at 402-471-9549 or through email at DHHS.FacilitiesSupport@nebraska.gov.

Seniors can also reach out to their local long-term care ombudsman for help researching local senior care facilities: Nebraska DHHS Long-Term Care Ombudsman.

If you or a loved one wishes to file a violation complaint against a provider in your area, you can do so online on the Nebraska DHHS Investigations portal. You can also reach out by phone at 402-471-0175 or submit a written complaint to the following address:

DHHS Division of Public Health Investigations
Attn: POL Investigation Unit
P.O. Box 94722
Lincoln, NE 68509

Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services general contact information

Physical: 301 Centennial Mall South
Lincoln, NE 68509

Mailing: P.O. Box 95026
Lincoln, NE 68509-5026​

Phone: 402-471-3121

TDD: 800-833-7352

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