Compare the support required—not only the address or monthly price.

Write down who helps with bathing, dressing, toileting, transfers, medicines, meals, transportation, housekeeping, and appointments. Note when the help must occur and what happens if the scheduled person is late. This reveals whether a few home-care visits can cover the need or whether support must be available throughout the day or night.

Home care can be flexible and preserves a familiar setting, but the family may still coordinate the house, meals, repairs, supplies, appointments, and gaps between visits. Assisted living commonly combines housing, meals, activities, and a defined level of personal support, but services, staffing, pricing, and admission criteria vary by community.

Ask both providers and facilities how they handle falls, nighttime assistance, two-person help, medication administration, cognitive changes, transportation, emergencies, and increasing needs. Get prices and service limits in writing.

For home, include paid care, utilities, food, transportation, snow removal, home maintenance, equipment, modifications, and the real availability of family help. For assisted living, include the base rate, level-of-care fees, medication services, supplies, transportation, community fees, and likely price changes as needs increase.

Also consider the value and strain of unpaid caregiving. A plan that works only because one exhausted person is always available is not a stable plan.

A time-limited home plan can be reasonable when the family agrees on the needed support and the conditions that would prompt a different decision. Examples include repeated falls, unsafe transfers, wandering, missed essential medicines, inability to obtain overnight help, or caregiver health decline.

Wisconsin ADRCs offer unbiased information and options counseling to older adults, caregivers, and people considering assisted living. They can help families understand local services and public funding options without deciding for the family.