Not all assisted living facilities are created equally. In fact, the term ‘assisted living’ may be too broad of a term to cover the range of care that could be offered under current terminology standards.
(Return to, or visit Assisted Living Directory’s Alabama Facilities page).
That’s why researching assisted living takes an enormous amount of time, especially if you have a specialized care need such as Alzheimer’s or Dementia.
The Assisted Living Association of Alabama has made researching care in their state a bit easier, by clearly identifying SCALF facilities on a city, and county-wide level.
First things first: What exactly does SCALF mean?
A SCALF facility, in Alabama, is a “Special Care Assisted Living Facility” that, according to the ALAA website, “ have additional trained staff and special architectural features to assure safety and health for residents with Alzheimer’s or senior dementia.”
Not all facilities have this designation, or the beds to accommodate such residents.
How do I find Special Care assisted living beds/facilities?
The AALA has made it pretty easy to identify these facilities. Currently, at the time of this writing, there are 85 assisted living facilities statewide (of the 340-or-so total) that are SCALF. This makes over 2,100 beds designated for Special Care needs residents.
There are a few ways to find these.
By County:
There is a good map offered through the AALA, by county that is broken down by county:
That, very simply, if you choose the county you are interested in, a list of facilities will come up. Looking at each facility’s information/data page, you’ll see clearly how many beds are available at the facility for Special Care needs.
A quicker, more to-the-point way to go is a city list of SCALF facilities statewide. Currently, there is a SCALF facility in 42 cities statewide in Alabama
http://alaaweb.org/scalf-by-city/
This list and data are non-commercial. The AALF represents 85% of the state of Alabama’s assisted living facilities.
Thank you for your article. I will pass it along to those in need.
-Marla B. Levie, President Focus on Aging http://www.focusonaging.com
My pleasure Marla. I am glad you found the article helpful. Great to learn about Focus on Aging. – David