By Indy Senior Advisor Care Team · June 8, 2026
Indiana does not certify memory care the way some states do. Instead, it requires a specific written disclosure under state law -- and most families touring a community have never asked to see it.
No certification, but a real legal requirement
Families researching memory care sometimes ask which Indiana agency certifies a 'memory care' community, expecting an answer similar to how nursing homes are federally rated. Indiana does not certify memory care as a distinct license category. What it requires instead is a written disclosure, filed under Indiana Code 12-10-5.5, for any community that locks or segregates a unit for residents with Alzheimer's disease or other dementias.
This matters because families often arrive at a tour having researched a different state's rules, or having absorbed general assumptions about how memory care is regulated nationally, and are surprised to learn Indiana's approach is built around disclosure rather than a licensing tier. Neither model is inherently better -- but showing up expecting a certification number to check, the way a family might in Texas, means arriving with the wrong question.
What the law actually requires
The disclosure itself, along with operational standards at 410 IAC 16.2-5-1.2 and 16.2-5-1.3, must describe the unit's staffing pattern, its physical security design including secured exits and alarmed doors, its admission and discharge criteria specific to that unit, and its training program for direct-care staff.
Staff working directly in the unit are required to complete 12 hours of dementia-specific training initially, and 6 hours annually after that. A July 1, 2023 amendment to Indiana's rules strengthened these training requirements and added fines of up to $10,000 for facilities that fall short.
The physical design requirements are specific enough to be checkable on a tour without any special expertise. Secured exits typically mean doors that require a code, a badge, or a specific unlocking sequence rather than a standard door handle -- ask to see how it actually works, not just to be told it exists. Door alarms should be audible and should trigger a visible staff response, not simply a light on a panel somewhere a family never sees.
Why most families never ask to see it
Touring a memory care community is an emotional process, and marketing materials tend to fill the space where a hard question might otherwise go. Brochures describe a 'secured, homelike environment' or a 'specialized dementia program' in warm language that sounds reassuring without actually confirming compliance with anything.
The disclosure document itself is different. It is a specific, filed record, and asking to see it by name -- not just asking general questions about the program -- tends to produce a very different quality of answer than a marketing conversation does.
What a strong answer looks like, and what a weak one looks like
A community that handles this well will produce the disclosure document promptly, walk through its staffing pattern in specific numbers rather than generalities, and describe exactly what happens when a resident approaches a secured exit. A community that hedges, cannot locate the document, or describes its dementia program only in marketing language has not met Indiana's own minimum bar for operating a memory care unit.
It is reasonable, and increasingly common among informed families, to ask for this document before scheduling a tour at all, so that a facility that cannot produce it is ruled out before a family invests emotional energy in visiting.
How this compares to other states
Some states, including Texas, require a formal state certification process for memory care providers, layered on top of the base assisted living license. Indiana's approach is lighter-touch: a mandatory disclosure and training requirement, but no separate certification to display. Neither approach is inherently safer than the other, but families moving to Indiana from a state with a certification model should not assume the absence of one here means less regulation -- it means differently structured regulation.
What matters practically is not which model a state chooses, but whether families actually exercise the rights the model gives them. A certification system is only protective if regulators enforce it; a disclosure system is only protective if families actually ask to see the disclosure. Indiana's model puts more of the burden on the family to ask the right question -- which is exactly why this article exists.
What to do with this information right now
Before your next tour, write down one specific request: 'Please have the Alzheimer's and Dementia Special Care Disclosure available when we arrive.' Communities that are used to being asked will have it ready. Communities that are not used to being asked are worth watching closely for how they respond to the request itself.
Keep a copy of whatever the community provides, and date it. If a family later has a concern about how the memory care unit is being run, having the original disclosure document on hand -- rather than relying on memory of a tour conversation months earlier -- gives Indiana's ombudsman program or the Department of Health something concrete to compare current practice against.
What families sometimes confuse this with
A related point of confusion: Indiana's disclosure requirement is not the same thing as a facility's overall Residential Care Facility license, and having one does not automatically mean a facility has properly filed the other. A community can hold a valid general RCF license while being out of compliance on its memory-care-specific disclosure, or vice versa in principle, though the latter would be unusual. Ask about both separately rather than assuming a clean answer on one implies a clean answer on the other.
It is also worth understanding that Indiana's disclosure requirement applies specifically to locked or segregated units. A community that has memory-care-trained staff working within its general assisted living population, without a physically separate secured unit, may operate under different rules entirely -- another reason to ask specifically how a given community's memory care program is structured, rather than assuming all 'memory care' marketing describes the same physical setup.
A five-minute checklist for your next tour
Before the visit: call ahead and ask that the Alzheimer's and Dementia Special Care Disclosure be available to review when you arrive. During the tour: ask to see it, ask how long the current unit director has held the role, and ask how staff are trained to respond when a resident approaches a secured exit -- listen for a specific, practiced answer rather than a general reassurance. After the tour: check the facility's license status on Indiana's public inspection search, and look specifically for any citations related to the memory care unit in past survey history.
Why this protection exists in the first place
Dementia care carries risks that general assisted living does not -- residents who may not recognize danger, who may attempt to leave a building unsupervised, or who may become disoriented in ways that put them at real physical risk. Indiana's disclosure requirement, and the training hours behind it, exist because a general assisted-living staffing model, without dementia-specific preparation, is not equipped to manage those risks safely.
The 2023 strengthening of these rules followed years of advocacy from families and elder-care organizations who had seen firsthand how inconsistent memory care quality could be across the state before more specific training and disclosure requirements were in place. Fines of up to $10,000 for violations reflect a legislative judgment that these requirements matter enough to enforce with real consequences, not just guidance.
