Innovative Memory Care Model Aims To Keep Older Adult Couples Together As They Age

Not-for-profit senior living provider ThriveMore is moving ahead with a development plan to bring a new model of memory care that enables couples to remain together in the same residence when one spouse is living with dementia.

Based in North Carolina, ThriveMore currently operates three life plan communities across the state.

The EverTogether Residence is a model for a new style of senior living home that supports both someone living with dementia and an independent partner. The inspiration for the project stems from a spousal dementia support group where loved ones shared emotional stories about having to place their spouse in memory care while they lived at home or at a different part of a senior living community.

“We want to be known in every market that we serve as the dementia expert,” CEO Reed VanderSlik said. “There’s a huge need and it’s a vision of where we want to be.”

ThriveMore continues to grow, completing a small-home memory care development on its broader Taylor Glen senior living campus as part of a larger, 50-unit independent living expansion. The new memory care residences transformed a former skilled nursing site to allow residents to age in place in a home-like setting. Overall, the addition was in direct response to a growing waitlist and a “downstream need” for more healthcare capacity in the future, VanderSlik said.

ThriveMore worked with CJMW Architecture to create a unique memory care model, VanderSlik said. The organizations workshopped multiple concepts and configurations before landing on a circular design plan that avoids long corridors and improves walkability. ThriveMore successfully launched a $2 million capital campaign, and now the project is under construction at the Brookridge senior living community in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The EverTogether memory care concept includes 12 homes arranged in a circular design with an age-friendly independent living space in the front area of the home and a secure studio suite in the back for a person living with dementia. Attached to the memory care studio suites, residents will have access to an adult day care program along with a secured, interior courtyard that is accessible for all older adults.

“What they described was wanting more waking hours together and so they wanted something that looks and feels like our independent living house that you would have in any of your campuses,” VanderSlik said. “But at the back of the home, we want a studio apartment that is secure.”

Another differentiating factor in the concept’s design is how operations are structured. In traditional home care, the spouse is commonly the sole caregiver, and in traditional memory care, staff serve as the caregiver. The EverTogether concept blends these two, allowing the spousal caregiver insight and feedback regarding their loved one’s care. This can allow for the more independent spouse to run errands, meet friends or keep appointments they may have not been able to do in the past, VanderSlik said.

For example, VanderSlik heard from members of the support group how they had to miss out on old pastimes like golfing nine holes with friends or needing to juggle home caregiver assistance. He recalled a couple that had been together 67 years and shared habits of always dining together and holding hands before falling asleep; those were some of the things couples had to give up in traditional memory care, but something that could be possible in the EverTogether concept.

“It really burned this challenge into my head that we could do better and there’s a group of people here and we’re not meeting their needs,” VanderSlik said.

The end goal, VanderSlik said, is to support both the independent caregiver and the memory care resident. To operationalize the concept, ThriveMore partnered with a third-party memory care consulting company to create new memory care programming and provide staff training on dementia care and engagement.

Staff in the EverTogether segment are cross-trained, universal workers being trained in things like food service and memory care support. The company’s overall model is based on the Green House Project that looks to create autonomy, dignity and empowerment of older adults living with dementia.

“I think what residents love about the universal worker is the consistency of that being the person that is there for them routinely,” VanderSlik said.

Construction on the project is underway and the new EverTogether homes will open in December, with move-ins happening in early 2027. VanderSlik said the industry is not prepared for the incoming need for memory care expected over the coming years as more older adults need dementia support.

“Challenge number one is the supply and inventory of what’s available because that’s going to need to grow exponentially,” VanderSlik said. “I think there’s a desire to do things better and to do them differently.”

Those differences must take shape in new, purpose-built memory care communities supported by evidence-based memory care programming to support older adults as they age living with cognitive change, he added.

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