Mother has stage 4 Parkinson's, and has been in assisted living care for the past 1-1/2 years. She is now needing more assistance. Advice?

My mother faced the same situation as yours is currently facing back in May. But, she also has moderate dementia, so she was accepted into the Memory Care building of the ALF she's lived at the past 5 years. They have a lot more care givers in Memory Care, so things are much better for her in that regard, but since she's more cognitive than many of the other residents, she hates it there. Her only other choice at this point is Skilled Nursing with Medicaid, which I'm trying to avoid. I do know that there are a few ALFs like Morningstar, for instance, that DO have higher care levels available to their residents who do not require memory care services. You might want to call around to find out which facilities in your area will accept a resident WITHOUT dementia issues who require a higher level of daily care. Morningstar, for instance, also accepts residents who require 2 care givers to assist them, which 95% of the other ALFs will not accept. The rates are extremely high for these extra services, however.

Best of luck!

As far as I understand it, a regular nursing home room is between AL and MC.

What do you see as the impact difference of the residents between AL and MC? If your mother doesn't participate in the AL activities, I am assuming she doesn't have much interaction with the residents either, so the greater memory issues of the MC residents would have a lesser impact than if she has friends and activities in the AL she enjoys. When my father was in MC, the biggest differences I saw (beyond greater care levels and supervision) were in the activities. AL residents went on more outside trips and had more diverse activities (like care tournaments) that just weren't offered in MC. If your mother generally likes to stay in her room with her own activities, I wouldn't think her memory status would be much of a concern. Although my father had vascular dementia, it had a minimal impact on his memory and didn't seem to matter in MC.

Nursing home or a residential adult family care home.

https://www.dshs.wa.gov/altsa/residential-care-services/about-adult-family-homes