Resources for Families Choosing Care

Choosing a care home for a parent is usually something a family does once, under time pressure, with no experience to draw on. These guides are written by the administrators who run our five homes, all of them licensed healthcare professionals, to answer the questions families ask us on the phone.

Nothing here is a sales pitch. Read what is useful, ignore the rest, and call when you want to talk through a specific situation.

Choosing a Care Home Paying for Care Understanding Care Levels

Choosing a Care Home

Start here if you are still working out whether your parent needs a care home, or if you are comparing homes you have already found.

Signs Your Loved One May Need 24/7 Care

The safety, health, memory, and daily living changes that usually mean supervision at home is no longer enough.

Read the guide

How to Choose a Residential Care Home

How to compare homes on licensing, staffing, safety, meals, cost, and the care they can actually provide.

Read the guide

Questions to Ask on a Tour

The questions worth asking before you leave a tour, grouped by topic so you can take the list with you.

Read the guide

Paying for Care

Cost is the question most families ask first. Our rates are published, and these explain the programs that can help cover them.

Payment Options and Costs

Our published monthly rates, what is included, and every payment source we accept, including Medi-Cal and VA benefits.

Read the guide

Medi-Cal Assisted Living Waiver Guide

How the waiver works, who qualifies, what it covers, and how to apply through a Care Coordination Agency.

Read the guide

Talk Cost Through With an Administrator

Every family’s finances are different. Call and we will tell you honestly whether a program applies to your situation.

Read the guide

Understanding Care Levels and Licensing

These explain how a board and care home differs from the alternatives, and how California licenses and inspects these homes.

Board and Care vs. Assisted Living

Size, setting, staffing, cost, and which one suits a parent who needs hands-on help every day.

Read the guide

Memory Care and Dementia Care

How a six-resident home supports someone with dementia, and the point at which higher levels of care becomes necessary.

Read the guide

Understanding RCFE Licensing in California

What an RCFE license means, who inspects these homes, and how to check any home’s record yourself.

Read the guide

Where Else to Look

We do not receive anything for these links. They are the places we point families to when they call with a question that is not ours to answer.

Verify a license and check a home’s record

Paying for care

Local help and someone to talk to

  • California Department of Aging, find services in your county: Locates your Area Agency on Aging, HICAP counseling, and local ombudsman.
  • California Aging and Adult Information Line, 1-800-510-2020: A free statewide line that routes you to help in your own area.
  • Long-Term Care Ombudsman CRISISline, 1-800-231-4024: Available around the clock for concerns about a resident in any licensed facility.
  • Alzheimer’s Association Helpline, 1-800-272-3900: Staffed around the clock by clinicians for dementia questions.

Outside links last reviewed August 2026.

Latest From the Library

Still Not Sure Where to Start?

Reading only gets a family so far. Tell us a little about your situation and one of the four administrators will call you back within one business day. All four administrators are siblings, and all four are licensed healthcare professionals.

(909) 775-5180

This is how we will reach you. We call rather than email whenever we can.

Please do not send medical information. This form is not a secure channel. Please do not include diagnoses, medical records, medication lists, or detailed health history. We are glad to discuss your loved one’s specific care needs, and will do that by phone or in person.