In 2018, there were about 220,000 Ohioans with Alzheimer's disease, and that number is projected to grow to a quarter of a million by the year 2025. In Lancaster, where seniors age 65 and up account for just over 17 percent of the city's 40,280 residents, two memory care facilities are available to serve seniors who have Alzheimer's disease or another type of dementia. To give families in the Lancaster area more options, 16 additional memory care facilities are located in nearby towns such as Grove City and Gahanna.
The Ohio Department of Health licenses memory care facilities in Lancaster and throughout the state. Officially, the state calls these facilities residential care facilities, or RCFs. Often, these memory care facilities are special units within larger assisted living communities.Â