Editor’s Note: Below is an interview with six senior living executives who will be speaking at the 2025 BUILD-BRAIN conference in Dallas, Texas. Hear more insights like these during our two-day event. Tickets are available here.
Memory care operators are quickly evolving to meet changing resident needs.
Unpacking that statement, they are embracing innovative hybrid models and value-based care payment options with the goal of improving resident health outcomes and care coordination. As they do so, they are blending hospitality and health care as expanding clinical models to better serve the memory care residents of today and tomorrow.
Those trends also have reshaped how operators view their staffing models. Operators are investing in more training, career pathways and specialization of roles in the name of improving resident outcomes.
Technology integration remains an important factor for operators looking to bring sophistication to their memory care programs, deploying fall detection software, wearable smart devices and using predictive analytics to better care for residents.
All of this is set against a backdrop of high demand as the first baby boomers start to turn 80 in 2026. Anthem Memory Care CEO Isaac Scott puts it another way: “We’re back, baby.”
“Occupancies are at their highest levels in our company history and demand is growing,” he told Senior Housing News. “It’s now our opportunity to create a sustainable model for care that will survive any future wobbliness in occupancies in the future.”
Read on to learn what leaders of six memory care operators see ahead, including the prospect of high demand, how they’re changing for a new generation of residents with new wants and needs and why memory care operators can’t sit on their laurels despite an optimistic outlook.
Discovery Senior Living National Director of Memory Care Programs Dawn Platt
What are two of the biggest memory care trends you’re watching in 2025?
At Discovery Senior Living, we see two major trends shaping memory care in 2025.
One is standardization of programming with differentiated innovation. Operators are moving away from fragmented, community-by-community practices toward structured, branded programs. Discovery Senior Living has been at the forefront of this evolution by investing in evidence-based, proprietary programming that ensures consistent quality, family engagement, and measurable outcomes across our national portfolio. This shift strengthens trust with families and capital partners while raising the industry standard.
Another is technology as a human-centered enhancer. We are leveraging ECP, telehealth, wearable sensors and AI-enabled predictive analytics not as replacements for the human connection but as tools to enhance it. By streamlining documentation and coordination, we free caregivers to dedicate more time to meaningful direct resident and patient interaction and support. Importantly, our innovations are rooted in the belief that technology should amplify, not replace, compassionate care.
How are acuity needs shaping the new reality of senior living operations in memory care?
Residents are entering memory care later in their disease progression, often with advanced cognitive decline and complex health conditions. Discovery Senior Living has responded by investing in cross-trained and empowered teams. Our teams receive advanced training that integrates dementia care with chronic disease management, proactive risk identification, and behavioral health. This equips caregivers to manage both clinical oversight and person-centered engagement seamlessly.
Building stronger clinical partnerships: We’ve expanded collaboration with therapy providers, primary care teams, and hospitals to ensure safe, coordinated transitions. This investment in integrated care reduces avoidable hospital transfers, enhances safety, and elevates quality of life.
What aspects of operations have evolved most to meet the growing demand for memory care?
The most significant shifts have occurred in continuous staff development. Discovery Senior Living has built tiered training platforms that extend beyond onboarding, focusing on real-time coaching, de-escalation strategies and dementia-specific best practices.
Elevated family communication: We’ve invested in structured communication systems that deliver transparency and real-time updates, fostering family trust and involvement.
Sales integration with clinical confidence: Memory care is no longer “a program on the side,” it’s a centerpiece of our brand identity. Families want assurance of standards, structured programming, and compassionate environments, and our operations deliver a true healthcare–hospitality blend that meets those expectations.
In what ways must the memory care sector further innovate operations?
The industry must confront today’s realities with real solutions. Discovery Senior Living is advancing innovation in:
Staffing models of the future: We are piloting role specialization and interdisciplinary models that better align with higher acuity levels while leveraging virtual and hybrid support where appropriate.
Embedded therapeutic engagement: Our vision is a fully integrated model where enrichment is not a separate activity but woven into dining, ADLs, and care routines ensuring every interaction supports cognitive health.
Data-driven insights: Through AI and our business intelligence tools, Discovery Senior Living converts data on falls, hospital transfers, medication use, and engagement into actionable insights. This approach transforms raw data into care improvements, safety enhancements, and validated outcomes for families and ownership partners.
What’s your outlook for the memory care sector in 2026?
We anticipate accelerated growth, rising complexity, and increased accountability. Families will demand providers who can demonstrate measurable results, and only operators who combine clinical sophistication with deeply human, person-centered care will succeed. We will continue investing in our platform including innovative communication platforms such as “The Disappearing Mind” podcast and website resource platform.
Discovery Senior Living is preparing by investing in partnerships with Alzheimer’s organizations, universities, and public health agencies to bring the latest evidence-based interventions into our programs. From early detection markers to non-pharmacologic interventions, our ability to adapt and implement best practices rapidly will define our leadership. Providers who promptly adapt their activity, environmental, and therapeutic programs in line with these findings will be best positioned to deliver higher-quality care and improved outcomes.
In 2026, the winners will be those who make memory care a core identity, not an afterthought and Discovery Senior Living is positioning itself as that standard.
Anthem Memory Care CEO Isaac Scott
What are two of the biggest memory care trends you’re watching in 2025?
Value based care, with traction. For many years, value-based care has been a “hot topic” with very little actually happening in reality. Finally, there are value-based care partners that have rolled out programs with enough heft and coverage that this is becoming a reality. Is it the game changer everyone has predicted? Maybe but better coordination of care will be a benefit to the memory care teams and provide the best approach to each resident.
Staffing has stabilized, but we cannot rest. The shrinking workforce is a reality, so what are we each doing to increase job satisfaction and retention? That will remain the highest priority.
How are acuity needs shaping the new reality of senior living operations in memory care?
Technology is really advancing our ability to track and properly care for increased acuity. Assessment forms are now incredibly detailed and offer the opportunity to differentiate the care needs in a much more specific way. Our recent move to an eight-level care system – charging for levels one, two, three, four, five, and six through eight – offers a glimpse into that.
What aspects of operations have evolved most to meet the growing demand for memory care?
Care technology has had the most dramatic impact. From the “old days” of care tracking on paper to our staff being outfitted each with their own handhelds allows our teams to respond accordingly. Fall management, resident engagement tech, integrated solutions connecting all tech platforms all support this.
In what ways must the memory care sector further innovate operations?
Patient monitoring and fall management tech has the ability to lessen the demands on our care teams and it will be really interesting to see how that advances. All innovations that support the care teams and decrease the load they have on their shoulders will be crucial. Also, intuitive and AI solutions to track changes in care needs will advance.
What’s your outlook for the memory care sector in 2026?
We’re back, baby. Occupancies are at their highest levels in our company history and demand is growing. It’s now our opportunity to create a sustainable model for care that will survive any future wobbliness in occupancies in the future.
Maplewood Senior Living VP of Revenue Growth and Strategy Jenna Anderson
What are two of the biggest memory care trends you’re watching in 2025?
Convergence of high-acuity care and luxury: We’re seeing licensed nursing and higher staff ratios embedded directly into memory neighborhoods, something that historically required a move to a skilled nursing environment. This shift allows residents to age in place with dignity, maintaining access to identity-preserving programs while also receiving the advanced clinical oversight they need. Communities such as Inspir Embassy Row in Washington, D.C. and Inspir Carnegie Hill in New York City showcase how this model is taking root in urban luxury developments, often through adaptive reuse of heritage buildings that blend cultural amenities with sophisticated design.
Technology and data insights are necessary: Technology is no longer a “nice-to-have,” it’s becoming foundational. AI-powered fall detection, wearables and non-invasive monitoring tools are providing real-time data that informs individualized care plans and reduces avoidable hospitalizations. Families increasingly expect this transparency, and operators who deliver both safety and personalization through tech-enabled care are earning trust and loyalty. In luxury memory care especially, technology is most impactful when it enhances, not replaces, the human experience.
Brand reputation and resident/family experience as differentiators: With consumers more informed and discerning, reputation carries real weight. Maplewood communities consistently scoring in the top tiers – 800- to 900-plus scores on Reputation.com – demonstrate that excellence in service, hospitality, care and environment is paying dividends. In luxury memory care, this means not just care quality but every touchpoint, from dining to design to staff communication, matters.
How are acuity needs shaping the new reality of senior living operations in memory care?
We are seeing residents enter memory care communities with higher clinical complexity than ever. Advanced cognitive decline, multiple comorbidities, and more intensive medication management are now the norm. This drives changes in staffing models, clinical oversight, and care plan frequency. In luxury settings, this also requires that the level of clinical professionalism matches the expectations for premium service. For example, Maplewood’s strategic leadership promotions—Adena McGowan as Corporate Director of Memory Care and Tino Popescu as Chief Clinical Operations Officer—reflect a deliberate investment in deeper clinical expertise to meet these evolving acuity demands.
What aspects of operations have evolved most to meet the growing demand for memory care?
Design and Amenities: Modern memory care programs increasingly prioritize environments that blend safety, wellness, and elevated resident experience. At Maplewood Senior Living, our long-standing reputation for exceptional design and amenities has set the standard in the industry. We have continued to raise the bar with projects like Inspīr Carnegie Hill and, most recently, Inspīr Embassy Row, incorporating wellness floors, rooftop lounges, one- and two-bedroom units. These developments require operational standards that integrate aesthetics, safety, and resident-centered design seamlessly.
Integration of advanced technology, data-driven care platforms: Maplewood and Inspīr have notably evolved memory care operations through adoption of AI-enhanced fall prevention systems like SafelyYou, data-driven health monitoring, and tech-enabled personalized care models. These innovations improve resident safety and autonomy, while equipping care teams with critical, real-time insights to provide confident, compassionate memory care in an increasingly complex environment.
In what ways must the memory care sector further innovate operations?
Pricing and revenue mix in luxury Memory Care: With strong occupancy and reputation in luxury units – for example, Inspir – there is opportunity to more aggressively bundle clinical premium and concierge services and reinforce rate integrity.
Efficiency in high-design and high care environments: Costs are higher for these premium experiences – for example, amenity maintenance, finishes, staffing. Innovating in staff training, predictive technology and operational systems is essential to balance care quality and margin.
Scalable Luxury Models: As demand in premium urban markets grows, the sector needs scalable luxury care models; standardized high-end design templates, care staffing models, and operational playbooks that can be adapted across different markets without losing the brand luxury feel.
What’s your outlook for the memory care sector in 2026?
Senior housing occupancy continues to outpace inventory growth, particularly in premium memory care segments. NIC MAP reports show absorption exceeding supply, creating a favorable environment for operators who can maintain high standards. For us, at nearly 96% occupancy, growth will come less from filling units and more from rate optimization, differentiation through premium amenities, and care excellence. Reputational capital, driven by satisfaction, awards and reviews, will increasingly influence pricing power and referral pipelines. Communities that excel not just in care but in the holistic resident experience will emerge as market leaders in 2026.
Grace Management National Director of Memory Care and Life Enrichment Dr. Ashlea Smalley
What are two of the biggest memory care trends you’re watching in 2025?
It feels like old news at this point, but adoption of AI and other tech solutions to support more engagement and care is still in an exciting early phase. Using it to help us get to know residents, their routines, and prompt interventions or programming ideas can help take the mental load off of team members a bit.
Not an immediate trend, but a conversation that is growing around integrating people living with dementia and supporting them within the wider context of a community. Getting rid of the locked doors essentially and addressing the reality that not every person with dementia may need and/or benefit from a secured environment.
How are acuity needs shaping the new reality of senior living operations in memory care?
Acuity is simply higher.
It will likely stay that way because people are waiting longer to move into communities, the cost associated can be challenging and there is a bigger focus on community resources and helping people age-in-place. I think that senior living operators can be a part of that conversation as well. The reality as a result of that higher acuity though is that people need more hands-on care in many cases than in years past, but the hiring pool for these roles is smaller. This in some ways is forcing the innovation of the tech, like wearables and other monitoring systems, to free up time for team members.
I think a higher acuity means that we also need to focus more on community education. We should reach out to providers and support groups to help people who need support, and help them realize that we are here and they can have a shift in quality of life with the social supports that memory care can provide.
What aspects of operations have evolved most to meet the growing demand for memory care?
Wellness technology and systems: I think the word ‘integration’ is my word of the year because we are working to pull together disparate operating systems to all speak to one another.
That workflow and double/triple data entry takes up precious time from our teams and a big push on our team has been to find ways to smooth out those processes and have systems that work together. I think from a tech perspective, if you are developing a platform of any kind, make sure you keep in mind that it needs to connect with the other big players in this industry.
Apps for fall prevention need to speak to EHR systems. CRMs need to flow to EHRs. Engagement, service, menus, et cetera, all need to speak to one another to make the workflow within communities smoother, thus giving us more time out from behind a computer and in front of people. That is especially true in the memory care sector, because nothing in the world is replacing human touch, compassion and connection in that arena.
In what ways must the memory care sector further innovate operations?
We have to find ways to center the resident’s perspective: What would it feel like to live in our communities? A big part of that includes our environments and the feelings they evoke. In many cases, senior living communities are 20-plus years old and those face challenges in their physical plant such as lighting updates, fewer open spaces, and environments that are rooted in the medical model with big nursing stations, et cetera. They will need updates, but we have to figure out how to do that while also operating, which is a challenge and, in some cases, risky.
What’s your outlook for the memory care sector in 2026?
Our population continues to age – and while advancements are being made – we are still expecting there to be more people living with dementia, with ADI projecting 78 million by 2030, an almost 30% increase in 10 years. We know there is still going to be a need for services for people living with dementia. I think we will continue to focus on evaluating and incorporating tech solutions to support care and also working to equip our teams with knowledge needed to support dementia in all levels of care, not just memory care.
Pegasus Senior Living Senior Vice President of Health and Wellness Dr. Sandra Petersen
What are two of the biggest memory care trends you’re watching in 2025?
A major trend is the integration of AI tools that assist in everything from proactive fall risk assessments to personalizing care service plans. Leveraging technology to track declines in cognition over time or to promote safety awareness is part of this key trend. The shift toward intentional environments that promote sensory engagement, biophilic (nature-inspired) design, and safety-enhancing technologies to support autonomy and reduce agitation is a second major trend in the sector.
How are acuity needs shaping the new reality of senior living operations in memory care?
Individuals are waiting longer to access senior living venues and, as a result, are frailer and more complex in their needs than in past years. Higher acuity levels are driving a need for more clinically astute staff, tighter coordination with healthcare providers, and enhanced data tracking and analysis. Operators are rethinking staffing models and investing in training to ensure teams can manage complex behaviors and comorbidities while maintaining a homelike atmosphere for residents.
What aspects of operations have evolved most to meet the growing demand for memory care?
Staffing and training have seen the most evolution. Providers are implementing specialized dementia training programs, leveraging interdisciplinary care teams, and using predictive analytics to anticipate resident needs. There is also a growing emphasis on family engagement platforms to support care transparency, communication, and collaboration.
In what ways must the memory care sector further innovate operations?
Innovation is needed to focus on workforce retention, especially through career pathways and mental health support for caregivers. Providing attractive work environments and perks for the workforce will be necessary as well; memory care providers must take an interest in their employees to ensure that they are paying attention to the needs and well-being of employees. There is also room to expand tech-driven solutions that adapt to individual cognitive levels and cultural backgrounds. Finally, collaborative relationships with regulatory bodies will be key to allowing providers to pilot new models of care; many states are exploring new models now that focus on quality and helping providers be successful—a trend that will continue into the future as we see the tsunami of seniors continue to build.
What’s your outlook for the memory care sector in 2026?
The sector is poised for continued growth, but success will hinge on how well providers can balance clinical excellence with resident-centered care. I anticipate more public-private partnerships, especially as healthcare systems continue to merge; increased investment in research-backed interventions; and a stronger push toward standardizing quality metrics across communities to promote consistency in senior care product lines.
Willow Valley Communities Memory Care Mission Director/Foundation Executive Director Lauren Renehan
What are two of the biggest memory care trends you’re watching in 2025?
Throughout 2025, I’ve been intrigued by multi-use technology – tech that provides insight for comprehensive care, that leans into comfort and normalcy, and allows our team to allocate more of their time to relationships with residents and their support networks.
I’m also a fan of the small household model and I am keenly interested in intentional design that juxtaposes the traditional model of care, emphasizing the comforts of home and personal rhythms.
How are acuity needs shaping the new reality of senior living operations in memory care?
The knee-jerk question, when it comes to staff, is, “how do you do more with less?” But what if we consider, “how do you do more with more?” Acuity forces us to prioritize and with more older adults, there are more people than ever living with memory loss. At Willow Valley Communities, we’re prioritizing aspects of the habilitative approach to maximize resident independence – enabling more autonomy and engagement in everyday life. We are also embracing opportunities for volunteer integration. With more older adults comes more hearts and hands who are willing to help. By harnessing the strengths and passion of all within our community, we allow the professional team to prioritize the truly acute and the volunteers to support those who are more independent.
There are 2,600 residents at Willow Valley Communities and we’re identifying new ways to meet these acute needs. But we’re also trying to identify opportunities to address the growing needs surrounding memory care before someone needs to move into a more supportive environment, such as opening a new cafe centered around the MIND diet, launching mentor, support, and learning groups for informal caregivers, building a brain tech center where residents can engage in brain training, and partnering with our local health system to bring neurology onsite so that assessments occur earlier in the process and a plan for support can be identified.
What aspects of operations have evolved most to meet the growing demand for memory care?
Memory loss exists within all levels of living. To this end, we are exploring interventions that will address a wide variety of experiences across the continuum, from those living with memory loss to those looking for a way to preserve memory. But memory care has long been stigmatized. So, to ensure the success of our interventions, we have allocated tremendous effort to community education and support, operating with the knowledge that a reduction in stigma will enable the much-needed emphasis on memory care to be more palatable and accessible to residents.
We are re-evaluating our model of supportive care. Many of our operational processes and procedures are shifting drastically with our plans to open the Marlin and Doris Thomas Memory Center in 2026. Our licensing, our team member-to-resident ratio, our care environment, and the day-to-day routines for resident engagement – this is all changing to exceed the expectations of tomorrow’s residents. We are dedicating seven acres to the establishment of a new memory center. With an adult day program, grocery store, restaurant, salon, club room, sprawling courtyards and more, there will be destinations that sponsor intergenerational engagement, purpose, identity, belonging, and simple pleasures. These amenities speak to how we are reenvisioning memory care. It’s our way of prioritizing the resident over traditional efficiency.
In what ways must the memory care sector further innovate operations?
We must continue innovating the how and where of memory care. The demand is rising, the composition of the care team is shifting, and the preference for the environment is changing. It is no longer enough to offer the traditional medical model of care. It is time for something better; a place that is not just a home but their home. Dementia presents a challenge, one that requires significant empathy and that the current industry cannot face alone. It will take communities of people to care for communities of people, so we must make it normal, inviting and more flexible.
What’s your outlook for the memory care sector in 2026?
In 2026, I predict that we will see many more hybrid models where providers are trying to strike a balance between residential living and services that are available to people aging in their own homes. I also believe that we as an industry will lean more heavily on technology to automate the environment and coordinate the behind-the-scenes efforts of comprehensive care. In combination, these efforts have the ability to improve the bottom line and deliver more personalized care to residents.
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