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Assisted Living in your area

Help with daily activities in a Wisconsin-licensed Community-Based Residential Facility (CBRF) or Residential Care Apartment Complex (RCAC), with meals, housekeeping and medication assistance included.

Quick answer

Wisconsin licenses assisted living as a CBRF or RCAC through DHS's Bureau of Assisted Living.

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Assisted living is for someone who is largely independent but needs a reliable hand with the everyday things — bathing, dressing, medications, meals, getting to appointments. In Wisconsin, most communities marketed as “assisted living” are licensed as a Community-Based Residential Facility (CBRF), for five or more unrelated adults receiving room, board, supervision and up to three hours of nursing care a week, or as a Residential Care Apartment Complex (RCAC), which provides private apartments and can deliver up to 28 hours a week of supportive care — a materially higher care ceiling than a CBRF.

Short answer

We list 15 verified assisted living providers across your metro. Assisted living is for someone who is largely independent but needs a reliable hand with the everyday things — bathing, dressing, medications, meals, getting to appointments.

Three things worth knowing first

  • Ask which services are included in the base rate versus billed as a separate care level.
  • Ask whether the community accepts Family Care or IRIS, Wisconsin's two Medicaid long-term-care programs, and how many current residents use one of them — room and board is generally not covered by either, even when care services are.
  • Ask what happens if your parent's needs exceed a CBRF's roughly three-hour-per-week nursing ceiling, since that can trigger a required move to a higher level of licensed care.
How Wisconsin licenses assisted living. Wisconsin uses four separate license types -- CBRF, RCAC, adult family home, and nursing home -- rather than one single assisted living license. Read the full explanation →

Verified assisted living across the region

We list 15 verified assisted living providers across your metro. The full table with addresses and counties lives in the directory.

See all 15 in the directory →

Assisted Living by city

Questions families ask

What is the 'We Honor Veterans' program mentioned by some Milwaukee-area hospice providers?

It's a national partnership between hospice providers and the Department of Veterans Affairs that trains hospice staff on veteran-specific end-of-life needs and helps recognize a veteran's military service as part of their hospice care. VITAS Healthcare's Milwaukee office describes running this program on its own site.

What's the difference between hospice and palliative care?

Palliative care focuses on comfort and symptom relief and can be provided alongside curative treatment at any stage of a serious illness. Hospice is specifically for patients who have stopped curative treatment and have a physician-certified life expectancy of six months or less if the illness runs its normal course.

What's the difference between 'home health care' and 'non-medical home care' in Wisconsin?

Home health care involves skilled, licensed clinical services (like nursing or physical therapy) typically ordered by a physician, often covered in limited circumstances by Medicare. Non-medical home care (companion care, personal care assistance) is unlicensed the way facilities are, and generally paid out of pocket or through Family Care/IRIS.

How are in-home caregivers screened and supervised in Wisconsin?

Because non-medical home-care agencies aren't licensed the way CBRFs or nursing homes are, screening and supervision practices vary by agency -- ask any agency directly about background-check procedures, caregiver training, and how a supervisor monitors care quality after placement, since there's no single state standard to check against.

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