Pennsylvania's memory care rules: secured dementia units and special care units

Last verified: October 2026

Does Pennsylvania license memory care separately?

No. Pennsylvania has no stand-alone memory-care license: a personal care home can operate a Secure Dementia Care Unit under 55 Pa. Code 2600.231-2600.239, and an assisted living residence can operate a Special Care Unit under 2800.231-2800.239, and the unit and its capacity appear on the home's DHS certificate.

Around Pittsburgh, 71 of the 231 licensed homes hold one of these units: 63 Secure Dementia Care Units and 8 Special Care Units, with 2,380 secured beds in total as of October 28, 2026. A building that markets “memory care” without a unit on its certificate is not licensed to run a secured dementia unit.

What must happen before someone moves into a Secure Dementia Care Unit?

Before admission to a PCH secured dementia unit the resident needs a medical evaluation, done within 60 days before admission on a DHS form, that documents the Alzheimer's or dementia diagnosis and the need for a secured unit, plus a written cognitive preadmission screening completed with a physician or geriatric assessment team (2600.231).

Those documents matter later too: they are what a home relies on to keep a resident behind locked doors, so ask to see the screening form your parent was assessed on and keep a copy.

How is an ALR Special Care Unit different?

An ALR Special Care Unit provides dementia care in the least restrictive manner consistent with the resident's support plan, with the stated aim of keeping the resident able to age in place; admission must be made in consultation with the family or designated person, and other service options must be considered first (2800.231).

Chapter 2800 also allows a Special Care Unit for intense neurobehavioral rehabilitation after a brain injury, which is a different population. A residence needs DHS approval for the special care designation, with a $150 application fee (2800.11(f)).

How much dementia training do staff in a secured unit get?

Each direct care worker in a PCH secured dementia care unit must complete 6 hours of annual dementia-specific training on top of the 12 hours of annual training every personal care home direct care worker needs (2600.236); ALR administrators complete dementia training in addition to their 100-hour course (2800.64).

Training hours are minimums. On a tour, ask who works the unit overnight, whether those staff are assigned only to the unit, and how the unit handles a resident who becomes agitated in the evening.

Secured dementia unit: what it is and is not