• Aging Services

  With the rapid changes and advances in services for persons over 60 years of age, CARF's aging services standards reflect leadership in the field internationally.

  The continuum of care accredited by CARF includes:

  • Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs)
  • Adult Day Services
    
  • Assisted Living
  • Person-Centered Long-Term Care Communities
  • Home and Community Services
  • Case Management
  • Independent Senior Living
  • Personal Supports Services
  • Dementia Care Specialty Program
  • Stroke Specialty Program

  Please refer to the aging services program descriptions for further details.

  For more information on CARF aging services accreditation, please email as@carf.org or call toll free (866) 888-1122.

• Aging services lenders

  Lenders seeking to invest in the senior housing and services sector may have questions about accreditation and how it helps identify an organization that is prepared to meet the terms of a lending arrangement.

  Visit www.carf.org/lenders to get started.

• The 2021 LeadingAge Ziegler 200

  The LeadingAge Ziegler 200 (LZ 200) lists the largest not-for-profit systems providing aging services through senior living in the United States, by order of their total owned market-rate units.

  In the 2021 list, there are 177 CARF-accredited continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs).

• CARF is the only accreditor for continuing care retirement communities

  The nation's first and only accreditation system for CCRCs—the Continuing Care Accreditation Commission (CCAC)—was founded in 1985 and began operations through the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (now known as LeadingAge). In 2003, CARF acquired CCAC.

  In 2017, the CCAC entity and accreditation process was fully integrated into CARF. The CCAC name and accreditation seal are no longer in use, but CARF continues the unique attributes of the accreditation process for CCRCs, including the Five-Year Term of Accreditation, the annual financial review, and the financial ratio benchmarks.

• CARF accreditation supports assisted living

  For more than 20 years, CARF’s holistic, person-centered quality framework has supported assisted living providers across the globe. Accreditation reflects a provider's commitment to distinction and to safety for all stakeholders. CARF is an active member of the Center for Excellence in Assisted Living, a national coalition of diverse organizations dedicated to advancing excellence in assisted living. In 2022, Jed Johnson, Managing Director, Aging Services co-authored an article appearing in the JAMDA Journal of Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine entitled, The Imperative to Reimaging Assisted Living.

  “Given CARF’s decades-long commitment to quality in assisted living, it was a distinct honor to join with esteemed colleagues to address these vital issues with a solutions-focused approach,” stated Johnson, “and that CARF accreditation is specifically highlighted as a professional approach to quality improvement that can complement state regulations.”

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• Continuing Communication newsletter

  The newest issue of the Continuing Communication newsletter is available now.

  Subscribe to future issues.

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• Elderly health/long-term care study

  An independent research study compared CARF-accredited nursing homes to those without CARF accreditation. It found that CARF-accredited nursing homes performed significantly better compared to U.S. national averages in six out of seven quality measures upon which the study was focused.
  
  Find out more about the study by visiting the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) summary webpage.   

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  Find retirement living. Click for a list of CCRCs.

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