In 2025, the big challenge for memory care operators is not necessarily staffing or quality of care – it’s growth.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, the number of people living with Alzheimer’s in the U.S. is projected to rise to almost 13 million by 2050. No doubt, that growth means big demand for memory care services ahead. But growth is not always a simple effort, and scaling operations hinges on operators’ ability to improve employee turnover and training and create quality standards that workers can meet and exceed across their whole portfolio.
Memory care operators including Discovery Senior Living, Watermark Retirement Communities and Anthem Memory Care are taking a data-driven approach to memory care and growing programming to reach the next generation of memory care residents.
Due to impending demographic-driven demand, these operators view 2025 as a pivotal year in shaping what the memory care sector will look like in the years ahead.
“If you are not thinking about how you integrate and make it very easy for operations to roll out, you’re behind,” said Anthem Memory Care CEO Isaac Scott.
‘The focus is growth’
Senior living providers with memory care portfolios are continuing to grow their footprints in 2025 in an effort to meet incoming demand.
Discovery Senior Living has grown rapidly in the last two years, standing up new management companies to handle regional demand in a horizontal growth push as the company continues to wait to build new projects. While the company has paused new development at scale, the company is under construction on an assisted living and memory care expansion at a community in Castle Hills, Illinois, according to Discovery Senior Living National Director of Memory Care Programs Dawn Platt.
The Bonita Springs, Florida-based senior living provider operates over 350 communities nationwide and oversees nine management companies, with the continuing growth also including memory care expansion.
In 2025, Platt said “the focus is growth” for the company’s memory care segment, highlighting plans to add “new brands to our memory care program” to be rolled out later this year across the company’s management companies that serve memory care residents.
Internally, Platt works with Discovery communities within all six management companies that offer memory care to coordinate best management practices.
“It will provide a lot of diversity in our programming and we will really focus a lot of our priorities around data and analytics,” Platt told Memory Care Business. “We’re very excited for what’s ahead in 2025.”
While each operating company with a memory care segment builds its own unique program, Discovery also operates its own branded memory care program, standardizing the assessment process to emphasize cognitive care and behavioral management based on real-time assessments, Platt said.
Tucson, Arizona-based Watermark Retirement Communities spent 2024 reviewing its Prema memory support program, revamping programming, dining and training. Over the next year and into 2026, Watermark leaders will roll out changes to the company’s memory care programming, according to Watermark National Director of Health Strategy Stephanie Boreale.
“I think that it’s exciting to see some of the foundational work with the enhancements of those three aspects, in addition to what we’re doing for value-based care and care coordination, as well as our wellness initiatives,” Boreale told MCB.
Also in 2025, Watermark will continue to expand its BrainCafe program, a partnership with the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the university’s Longevity Center to bring activities and programming updates to Watermark memory care communities.
In 2024, Anthem Memory Care sought to go on the offensive when it came to memory care, with the organization revamping its levels of care to better capture care revenue in an eight-tier system. Due to some of the changes installed last year, Scott said the company will be “mindful” when considering new growth this year.
“We’re going to see how things play out and we’re going to look at what we’re going to change as we get into the second quarter,” Scott said.
Innovation, data and care models
While the pace at which senior living operators engage with value-based care models quickened in 2024, there are a handful of other trends worth monitoring for operators through the rest of this year.
To engage more closely with residents and impact care at the community level, Boreale said providers must “create personalized care plans” while being open to new models including value-based care to improve resident health outcomes.
“We’ve got to be having more conversations around technology and focusing on proactive wellness, not just for our residents but also for our associates,” Boreale said.
Throughout this year, Scott believes operators must make 2025 all about “revenue capture” and “right-sizing” staffing while paying attention to data and analytics that could improve revenue generation or improve a provider’s operating model.
That’s because the senior living operating playbook for memory care requires monitoring resident health and wellness changes to offer preventative solutions rather than reacting to adverse acuity changes.
“Gone are the days when you’d check if a resident had picked up their newspaper and what that told you about their overall health,” Scott said. “That’s gone out the window and it’s hand-to-hand combat and we’re assessing every interaction, and how we capture that and how do we analyze that.”
Through its data analytics team, Discovery has been able to leverage data insights in improving memory care programming across its management companies, Platt said. In 2025, Platt said Discovery would look at its vendor partners and determine which are able to improve the care provided at Discovery communities.
“Technology is able to provide us outcomes that we’ve never been able to see before so we will drive our business and drive care based on real-time data,” Platt said.
Solving memory care staffing requires ‘mindful’ approach in 2025
It’s no secret that memory care operations are the most labor-intensive in the senior living continuum, and in the last few years, operators have struggled with myriad staffing challenges. Chief among them is securing and retaining top licensed care positions.
When Anthem revamped its levels of care, Scott said the company looked closely at its clinical services director position, a key part at the community level in creating “a really well-run clinical group,” and focused retention efforts around those positions.
“We’ve got to be mindful of their satisfaction with their job and we have to create some balance for them so that we can have a really well-run clinical group within each of our communities,” Scott said. “It’s an art and a science. The science is the data, and the art is getting people motivated to do what you’d like them to do and that’s something we’re focused on.”
While technology can ultimately improve a worker’s overall role, Boreale said, it’s important for providers to be careful in not overwhelming frontline teams with new systems. That’s led Watermark to consolidate the number of devices used by care team members.
Through Watermark’s recent focus on value-based care, Boreale said the company has created additional resources for care teams to fall back on, including access to a nurse practitioner or physician, therapy team to reach an “integrated care model” while taking some of the pressure of care staff, which can improve staff retention, Boreale added.
“It helps them feel like they’re part of the team versus needing to take on all of the responsibility and then triage out referrals,” Boreale said.
Since 2020, Platt said Discovery memory care communities have “seen a change in our customer,” including the types of dementia residents—this forced the company to look at its education and training of staff to prepare operations to meet the new demand.
Looking ahead to the rest of the year, Platt said operators must continue to examine their behavioral management models until pharmacological interventions emerge more readily to improve memory care.
“Safety is the standard and we want to do it better and offer the customer the quality they deserve,” Platt said.
In thinking about the rest of 2025, Boreale said Watermark would continue to focus on creating an integrated care model within its memory care communities, while focusing on staffing challenges.
In 2025 and into 2026, Scott said providers must battle with the “yin and yang” of opportunities and challenges in memory care, from retaining staff and improving care models to in the end see better revenue and improved resident experiences.
“Occupancy gains that we know that we’re going to make with no development and a growing demand are going to be there. But then, how do you couple that with really good staff retention programs and staff training so that you make sure that your bench is strong and that you’re delivering care in the most effective way,” Scott said.
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