Adult Foster Care Homes

Abstract

Adult foster care homes in the United States are small residential care settings typically smaller than six beds that provide long‐term services and supports to one or more persons in a communal setting. Residents are most often dependent older adults with limited financial resources. Adult foster care homes are a hybrid of informal care usually provided by relatives, with supportive care instead provided by formal (paid) caregivers. They are considered a type of residential care/assisted living setting, most notably distinguished from other assisted living settings by their smaller size. These homes aim to help residents safely age in place and offer 24‐hour oversight in addition to room and board. Adults who live in adult foster care homes require assistance with activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living. Most homes are private pay and many accept Medicaid. Presently, more than 19,000 adult foster care homes provide care for more than 64,000 persons.

Variation in Licensed Nurse Staffing Characteristics by State Requirements in Residential Care

“…Of the 5,035 RCCs included in the 2014 RCC survey data file, 381 were identified as adult foster care (AFC) providers and excluded from the analyses. AFC is a type of home- and community-based service that provides personal care assistance to adults who reside in a residential home with a live-in caregiver (Carder et al, 2015; Horsford & Zimmerman, 2016). The current study used the description of each state’s AFC licensure categories, as described in Carder et al (2015), to link to the state licensure labels available in the 2014 RCC sampling frame to identify AFCs in the survey data file.…”