The largest city and the capital of Massachusetts is Boston in both cases. Known as The Bay State, Massachusetts is a great place to live for sports fans, history buffs, nature enthusiasts, and has a lot more than that to offer to a lot of people. In terms of total area, it’s one of the smallest states, but has among the highest populations and a very high median income. The cost of living matches, as it can be a very expensive place to live, but there are still affordable options when it comes to assisted living care, senior care, memory care, and other specialized types of service and care. In addition to that, Medicaid can help with the costs for those who need assistance, but we’ll cover that in more details shortly.

There are numerous high-level professional sports teams in Massachusetts¸ from the Celtics, to the Bruins, to the Patriots, to the Red Sox, and they’ve also had a very successful run in the past decade or so when it comes to winning championships.

Aside from that, there’s a highly regarded Museum of Fine Arts, the Freedom Trail, Boston Public Garden, Harvard University, Old North Church, and many more noteworthy places to visit, too many for us to list right now.

Quick Facts about Massachusetts

• In terms of total area, Mass comes in 44^th place, however they rank 15^th for population. Their median household income in $67,861 which is 7^th in the United States, however they also have an above average cost of living.
• Massachusetts was the first state to legally recognize same-sex marriage in 2004.
• Harvard is the oldest place of higher learning in the USA, and their law school has educated a staggering amount of Supreme Court Justices.
• After English, 7.5% of residents speak Spanish, and Portuguese is next with just under 3%.

Types of Assisted Living in Massachusetts

The care provided in this state includes help with taking medicine, help with a variety of daily tasks like basic hygiene, laundry, and so forth, and meals.

If a facility is housing people with Alzheimer’s disease, additional training is mandatory to ensure that the facility and their staff members are able to meet the unique needs and challenges posed by this affliction. It’s ideal for them to offer a separate area for this type of care, ideally where residents aren’t able to wander off or to inadvertently hurt themselves or other residents.

Requirements for Moving in or Moving Out

Initial assessment information: Prior to moving in, a resident or their primary care giver will receive information about the facility including the staff, the layout, policies, how many units there are, which services are being provided, the terms of payment, and more.

Also, the resident themselves will be assessed to properly document their needs and to ensure that they’re being well-served by the facility they end up choosing. This assessment will help ensure everyone is on the same page, and that care givers understand exactly what’s needed and that the resident is being well taken care of in all areas where they require it.

If a resident requires nursing care, the facility may not be able to admit them unless such care is hired from a 3^rd party provider. In some cases, it may make more sense for the resident to move into a facility that’s better equipped, but in lesser cases, the more casual nature of a senior home is more beneficial than somewhere with a more hospital-like setting, once again, as long as the needs of the resident are being met without interfering with the needs of others.

General Information About Care

Bathroom requirements: The specific ratios will depend on when the facility was built, as older buildings are grandfathered in with slightly more lenient requirements. For any facilities built in the past couple of decades, every single resident’s unit is required to have a private washroom. Even before that, each resident had their own sink and toilet, and a shower or bathtub could only be shared by up to 3 residents, which is still a very good ratio comparatively speaking, since some states only have a requirement of one bathroom per every six or eight residents. So, either way, whether you’re in a newer facility or an older one is Massachusetts, they have great bathroom requirements.

Medication handling: Family members and staff members can help with medication administration in a limited capacity, otherwise the residents are allowed to do this themselves.

Fire and Safety information: In regards to safety and fire precautions, the facility must meet any and all federal regulations, and also have plans in place with how to manage a variety of emergency situations that can arise when you have this many people, some in poorer health, living together. Please ask each facility that you’re considering exactly what their emergency plans are, for things like fires, disease outbreaks, extended power outages, and more. Whoever you are speaking should know these things off the top of their head, because a lack of knowledge on this is a big red flag that staff may not be properly trained for such scenarios.

Staff Training and Requirements

There is a more basic seven hour course for all staff members, and a more in-depth course that’s over fifty hours long for nurses, nursing assistants, and similar roles. For places that offer additional care, there is also additional training for things like mental illnesses, dementia, Alzheimer’s, and includes lessons on how to properly care for people suffering from these conditions, and they require yearly updates.

Medicaid for Assisted Living in Massachusetts and Additional Information

Care is covered by the state’s Medicaid, so if the higher cost of living is difficult, there is some help availability. You can also reach out to the Office of Elder Affairs for more important on finding the correct types of care and how to go about getting assistance with the costs that come along with them.

Hopefully you’ve found this resource about senior care, group homes, and assisted living in Massachusetts to be a useful resource. We are always looking to update our information and to make it more in-depth, so if you have any additional questions, or would like clarifications on anything we’ve covered, please don’t hesitate to reach out and we’ll do our best to either update this page or to point you in the right direction for additional information from the correct sources.