Shared Risk in Assisted Living: Awakening a Sleeping Giant

Providing person-centered care is the core philosophy of assisted living, an industry serving more than one million older adults across 32,000 communities in the United States (National Center for Health Statistics, “Data From the National Post-acute and Long-term Care Study [NPALS],” Apr. 7, 2025, https://bit.ly/NCHS-NPALS). Drawing on agreed-upon constructs, the national Center for Excellence in Assisted Living at the University of North Carolina (CEAL@UNC) defines person-centered care and policies as those that promote “quality of life, privacy, choice, dignity, inclusion and independence as defined by each individual and those who know them best.” Central to these tenets is the right of a resident to choose to engage in preferred activities — including activities that entail risk.