Quick Take: What you'll learn in this guide
- Private caregivers at home can be more affordable than Memory Care in early stages, when a parent needs only a few hours of daily support
- Once a parent needs 24/7 or near-24/7 supervision (which most mid- to late-stage dementia requires), Memory Care becomes significantly less expensive
- The tipping point for most families falls between 40 and 60 hours of paid care per week
- Memory Care at The Landing of Bogart starts at $6,595 per month, all-inclusive of room, board, meals, care, activities, and staff supervision
- Beyond cost, safety considerations for dementia (wandering, falls, medication errors) and family caregiver strain often tip the decision independent of the math
Memory Care vs Private Caregiver at Home: What Families Are Really Comparing
When a parent is diagnosed with dementia, the first instinct for most families is to keep them at home as long as possible. It is a natural instinct, and often the right one in the earliest stages.
The question that follows almost immediately is: how do we actually do this? Some families lean on unpaid family care. Others hire a private caregiver, either through an agency or independently. Some do both. Very few families sit down and compare that path honestly against the cost of Memory Care in a dedicated community.
This post is the honest comparison. There are stages where keeping your parent at home genuinely costs less. There are stages where Memory Care costs significantly less. Knowing which stage you are in changes the decision.
Why Families Consider a Private Caregiver First
Families choose the home-plus-private-caregiver route for real reasons:
- Home is familiar to the parent, which matters especially in early dementia
- The family avoids the emotional weight of “putting mom in a home”
- Hourly caregiver costs at low volumes feel manageable
- The parent maintains some sense of independence
For families whose parent is in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia, and who need only 20 to 30 hours per week of paid support, the private caregiver path can be genuinely affordable and appropriate.
Then dementia progresses. The math changes.
The Real Cost of a Private Caregiver at Home (Georgia)
Private caregiver costs in Georgia break down roughly like this, based on Genworth’s most recent Cost of Care Survey and current market rates:
Home Health Aide (through an agency): $22 to $28 per hour, with $25 as a rough Georgia midpoint. Agency pricing includes vetting, insurance, backup coverage, and payroll administration.
Personal Care Aide / Homemaker (through an agency): $20 to $25 per hour. Slightly lower than a Home Health Aide because the scope of care is more limited (no medical services).
Private Caregiver (hired independently): $15 to $20 per hour. Lower per-hour cost, but the family assumes responsibility for payroll taxes, insurance, backup coverage if the caregiver is sick or unavailable, and vetting.
Multiply those hourly rates by the hours actually needed, and the monthly picture emerges.
Part-time coverage (20 hours per week): Approximately $2,000 to $2,500 per month through an agency. Manageable for many families in early-stage dementia.
Full workday coverage (8 hours per day, 5 days per week = 40 hours per week): Approximately $4,000 to $5,000 per month through an agency. Still manageable but starts approaching Assisted Living monthly rates.
Extended coverage (12 hours per day, 7 days per week = 84 hours per week): Approximately $8,400 to $10,500 per month through an agency. Now more expensive than most Memory Care communities.
24/7 coverage (168 hours per week): Approximately $16,800 to $21,000 per month through an agency. Two to three times the cost of Memory Care.
These numbers only cover the caregiver. They do not include the cost of maintaining the home (mortgage or property taxes, utilities, insurance, maintenance, groceries, transportation) or dementia-specific home modifications (grab bars, safety alarms, secured exits, medication management systems).
What Memory Care Includes at $6,595 Per Month
Memory Care at The Landing of Bogart starts at $6,595 per month. In Georgia, Memory Care communities generally range from $5,000 to $8,500 per month depending on the community and care level.
That monthly rate is all-inclusive of:
- The private residence (studio or suite)
- 24/7 professional staff trained in dementia care
- Three meals per day plus snacks, prepared for dementia-friendly nutrition
- Medication management by trained staff
- Personal care assistance with bathing, dressing, and other Activities of Daily Living
- Structured daily programming designed for cognitive support
- Dementia-friendly community design and secure environment (protection against wandering)
- Housekeeping, laundry, and maintenance
- Coordination with the family physician and specialists as needed
- Family communication and support
At $6,595 per month, the family gets around-the-clock coverage plus the housing, meals, and supportive infrastructure. Compare that against $16,800 to $21,000 per month for 24/7 private caregiver hours alone, before adding home maintenance costs.
The Side-by-Side Comparison at Different Care Intensities
| Care intensity | Home + Private Caregiver | Memory Care |
|---|---|---|
|
Early-stage (20 hrs/week paid care) |
~$2,000 to $2,500/mo caregiver only |
Starting at $6,595/mo |
|
Mid-stage (40 hrs/week paid care) |
~$4,000 to $5,000/mo caregiver only |
Starting at $6,595/mo |
|
Extended coverage (84 hrs/week) |
~$8,400 to $10,500/mo caregiver only |
Starting at $6,595/mo |
|
24/7 coverage (168 hrs/week) |
~$16,800 to $21,000/mo caregiver only |
Starting at $6,595/mo |
Beyond the Numbers: What Money Cannot Fully Buy
Dementia-Specific Safety
Memory Care communities are built around dementia-specific safety infrastructure that a home simply cannot replicate at reasonable cost:
- Wandering prevention. Secured entries and exits, monitored common areas, and staff trained to recognize wandering behavior early.
- Fall prevention. Purpose-built layouts with adequate lighting, non-slip surfaces, accessible bathrooms, and staff who can respond quickly.
- Medication safety. Staff-managed medication delivery on a consistent schedule, which reduces the frequency of missed doses or accidental double doses (both common in home care with cognitive decline).
- Emergency response. Staff present around the clock, trained to recognize medical events and respond immediately.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, a large share of dementia-related hospital visits are triggered by preventable events (falls, medication errors, or wandering incidents) that would be less likely to occur in a Memory Care setting.
Family Caregiver Strain
The AARP estimates the value of unpaid family caregiving in the United States at hundreds of billions of dollars per year, but the personal cost is harder to quantify. Adult children caring for a parent with dementia at home routinely report:
- Physical exhaustion, especially from managing overnight wakings and sundowning episodes
- Emotional and psychological strain from watching cognitive decline day to day
- Career impact, from missed work and reduced hours
- Financial strain from unreimbursed caregiving expenses
- Social isolation, both for the parent and for the caregiver
When family members burn out, care quality drops. That is not a moral failure. It is a systemic reality of what dementia caregiving requires at scale. Memory Care communities professionalize the care so families can go back to being family: visiting, sharing meals, participating in activities, without also being the sole medical and safety net.
When Home Care Genuinely Costs Less (and Works)
Home care with a private caregiver can be the right choice when several conditions are true together:
- Your parent is in early-stage dementia and does not yet need 24/7 supervision
- The home is already safe for someone with cognitive decline (single-story, secured entries, minimal fall hazards)
- The family caregiver network is strong enough to fill gaps that paid caregivers cannot cover
- The parent has expressed a clear preference for staying home and can participate in that decision
- Your family has honestly assessed the trajectory and knows this is a temporary arrangement, not a permanent one
For families in that situation, hiring a Home Health Aide for 15 to 25 hours per week is often the right first step, with clear-eyed acknowledgment that hours will need to increase as dementia progresses.
When Memory Care Becomes the Better Answer
The signals that home care is no longer working, regardless of cost:
- Your parent has wandered or attempted to leave the home unsupervised
- Missed medications or medication mix-ups have become a recurring issue
- Falls have started, or the parent is at increasing risk of them
- Sundowning episodes are disrupting the household nightly
- Family caregivers are showing signs of burnout, depression, or their own health decline
- The parent is becoming socially isolated in a way that is worsening cognitive symptoms
Any one of these signals is a reason to have a serious conversation about Memory Care. Multiple signals together often mean the conversation is overdue.
Frequently Asked Questions
Only in limited circumstances. Medicare covers short-term home health services (skilled nursing or therapy) when ordered by a physician after a hospital stay, but does not cover ongoing custodial care from a private caregiver. Most private caregiver costs are paid out of pocket, through Long-Term Care Insurance, or in some cases through Georgia Medicaid waiver programs like CCSP or SOURCE. See our post on Georgia Medicaid and Assisted Living for details.
Next Steps for Your Family
Request pricing for Memory Care at The Landing of Bogart. Our team will send a detailed pricing sheet that shows exactly what is included in the monthly fee, so you can compare directly against the true cost of home care.
Schedule a tour to visit the Memory Care neighborhood and see the dementia-specific design and care model in person. Many families find that touring changes what they thought they knew about Memory Care.
For families still weighing whether Memory Care is the right time, our post Mom Was Just Diagnosed With Dementia: What Now? walks through the first weeks after a diagnosis. Our post on Sundowning covers one of the most common signs that home care is reaching its limit.
Related Resources
Sundowning Explained: What It Is and How Memory Care Helps
An honest look at sundowning, one of the hardest daily challenges families caring for a parent with dementia face, and what Memory Care communities do differently.
How Much Does Memory Care Cost in Georgia?
An honest look at Memory Care pricing in Georgia, why it costs more than Assisted Living, and how families cover the cost.
Mom Was Just Diagnosed With Dementia: What Now?
A dementia diagnosis is not the end of your parent’s story. It is a turn in it. A practical family guide to the first weeks after.
What Is Memory Care? A Complete Guide
A family guide to Memory Care and how it supports adults living with Alzheimer’s or dementia, from daily routines to community design and staff training.
