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Assisted Living vs. Independent Living: How Madison-Area Families Decide

If you're researching senior living around Madison, you'll run into two terms that sound similar but mean very different things: independent living and assisted living. Knowing the difference saves families a lot of wasted tours.

Independent living is for older adults who manage daily life on their own and mainly want community, convenience, and freedom from home maintenance. No daily care is included.

Assisted living is for people who want their own apartment and independence, but with daily support built in: meals, housekeeping, medication observation, staff around the clock, and someone there if a health need changes.

Prairie Gardens Assisted Living in Sun Prairie is the second kind — assisted living that grows with you. Apartments are all-inclusive, starting at $4,500 per month, one easy monthly rate covering three nutritional homestyle cooked meals per day, daily life enrichment activities, weekly housekeeping and laundry, a full time Registered Nurse and 24 hour carestaff, a 24 hour wireless call / emergency response system, ADA bathrooms with walk in showers, monthly wellness monitoring, coordination of appointments, and change in condition notification.

Short-term stays are available, and pets are welcome.

The right question to ask on any tour: what happens when needs change? At Prairie Gardens, the answer is built into the model — care that grows with the resident, in a community family owned and operated by Jerry and Suzy Harbort for 21 years. "We treat every resident like family because they are."

Come see it for yourself: call (608) 825-4884 to request a free tour, or visit prairiegardensassistedliving.com.