By Raleigh Senior Advisor Care Team · July 13, 2026
North Carolina doesn't issue a separate memory care license. It requires a disclosure statement instead. Here's what that document actually has to contain, and the questions it doesn't answer for you on a tour.
There's no such thing as a "memory care license" in North Carolina
Search enough assisted living websites in the Triangle and you'll see the phrase "licensed memory care" everywhere. It's worth understanding exactly what that phrase does and doesn't mean under North Carolina law, because the state does not issue a distinct memory care license at all. What exists instead is a Special Care Unit (SCU) designation that gets added onto a facility's existing adult care home license.
An adult care home in Cary, Raleigh, or anywhere else in the Triangle that wants to operate a dedicated Alzheimer's or dementia unit — or a unit for residents with mental illness or developmental disabilities — has to apply to add that SCU designation to its base adult care home license. The underlying license is the same adult care home license described in Chapter 131D and 10A NCAC 13F that governs every assisted living setting in the state; the SCU designation is a specific overlay with its own rule set and disclosure requirements, governed by 10A NCAC 13F .1300 through .1303 and G.S. 131D-8.
What G.S. 131D-8 and the SCU rules actually require
G.S. 131D-8, enacted through 1999 legislation, requires any facility operating a special care unit to prepare and make available a formal disclosure statement describing the unit. This isn't a vague marketing requirement — the disclosure has to be filed with and approved by the state before a facility can hold itself out as operating an SCU, and 10A NCAC 13F .1300–.1303 lays out the specific content and approval process DHSR's Adult Care Licensure Section administers.
The disclosure statement itself is meant to describe, in specific and factual terms, things like the unit's philosophy of care, the assessment and admission criteria used to place a resident in the unit, staffing patterns specific to the unit, staff training requirements related to dementia care, the physical environment and design features of the unit, programming and activities offered, and the process for discharging or transferring a resident whose needs exceed what the unit can provide. Every facility with an approved SCU is required to make this document available to families considering placement — you can and should ask for it directly, in writing, before you tour.
One thing we want to be precise about, because this is a common point of confusion: the SCU disclosure statement is a description of what a facility says it does, filed with the state as part of the approval process. It is not, in itself, an independent state certification that the unit's care is good, nor is it a quality score. Treat it as a detailed, state-required baseline document — a floor for what you're entitled to know, not a ceiling on how much more you should ask.
Why the disclosure exists — and its real limits
The disclosure requirement exists because memory care historically was one of the least transparent corners of the assisted living industry nationally. Families often couldn't tell, from marketing materials alone, whether a unit branded as "memory care" had specialized dementia staff training, a genuinely secured environment, or any different staffing ratio at all compared to the general population wing next door. North Carolina's disclosure statement requirement was built to force that information into the open in a standard, comparable format across every SCU-designated facility in the state.
That said, the disclosure statement has real limits as a shopping tool. It tells you what a facility has committed to on paper, at the time it was filed and approved. It does not tell you how consistently that plan is executed day to day, what the unit's actual staff turnover looks like this year, or how the facility handles a resident having a difficult afternoon at 4 p.m. — the phenomenon often called "sundowning" in dementia care. For that information, you have to combine the disclosure statement with an in-person tour, ideally at more than one time of day, and a direct look at the facility's inspection history through DHSR's Adult Care Home Facility Inspections, Ratings and Penalties search tool.
It's also worth remembering that the same DHSR search tool that lets you look up general adult care home licensing status (info.ncdhhs.gov/dhsr/facilities/search.asp) doesn't separately flag which facilities carry an SCU designation in an easily filterable way — you may need to confirm SCU status directly with the facility and cross-reference it against DHSR's special care unit approval information at info.ncdhhs.gov/dhsr/acls/specialunitapp.html.
What to actually ask for on a memory care tour in the Triangle
Start by asking to see the facility's SCU disclosure statement in writing, not summarized verbally by a sales director. Compare what it says about staffing ratios and training against what staff on the floor tell you when you ask them directly during your visit — a meaningful gap between the two is a red flag worth pursuing.
Ask specifically about staff dementia-care training: how many hours, how often refreshed, and whether it's specific to dementia care or just general caregiving certification. Ask what the unit's secured-egress design actually looks like — is it a locked wing, a household model, or something else — and how the facility handles a resident who becomes agitated or attempts to leave. Ask what triggers a transfer or discharge from the unit, and where residents go if their needs progress beyond what the unit provides; this is one of the most consequential and least-asked questions in a memory care search, because a mid-crisis transfer is far harder on a family than planning for it in advance.
Ask about the physical environment specifically for wandering-related safety: circular or looped hallway design, secured outdoor space, visual cues for way-finding. And ask what a typical day of programming looks like, not the printed activity calendar but what staff say actually happens most afternoons. If you're touring multiple communities across Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh, using the same list of questions at each stop makes the comparisons far more useful than general impressions.
Cost realities specific to memory care in NC
One more thing worth knowing before you start touring: North Carolina does not have a published statewide median cost figure specific to memory care, unlike its assisted living and nursing home median cost data. Memory care pricing in the Triangle typically runs as a premium added on top of a facility's base assisted living rate, and that premium varies significantly by community, level of secured care, and staffing model — there's no single reliable benchmark number the way there is for standard assisted living or nursing home care. We break down what actual median cost data does and doesn't exist for the region in our guide to what senior care actually costs in the Triangle.
Because memory care often runs at a meaningfully higher monthly rate than standard assisted living at the same community, it's worth asking every facility for a specific, itemized quote rather than relying on a general price range mentioned in marketing materials — and asking whether that rate is guaranteed to hold as a resident's needs increase, or whether it escalates through defined care levels.
If something feels wrong after move-in
If you have concerns about the special care unit itself — inadequate staffing relative to what the disclosure statement promised, safety concerns, or care quality issues — you have the same complaint channels available for any adult care home concern. DHSR's Complaint Intake Unit takes reports at 1-800-624-3004 or 919-855-4500, weekdays 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. The regional Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, reached through Central Pines Regional Council for most of the Triangle, can also investigate and advocate directly for a resident's rights within a facility. Keep a copy of the SCU disclosure statement you were given at move-in — if a real gap opens up between what was promised and what's being delivered, it's the clearest documentation you'll have.
