California is home to nearly 40 million people, 15 percent of whom are over the age of 65, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The state capitol, Sacramento, is surrounded by smaller cities like Citrus Heights, which has many memory care facilities to house some of the state's 650,000 Alzheimer's and dementia patients.
Memory care providers in California are sometimes called residential care facilities for the elderly (RCFEs) by the state Department of Health and Human Services, which regulates and oversees the 51 memory care facilities in Citrus Heights. These facilities are often located in proximity to, or on the grounds of, associated assisted living communities, where many of the patients used to live, and where many of their friends still reside.