Your loved one deserves to feel safe and at home, even as memory loss makes each day more unpredictable. Preferred Care at Home provides dementia in-home care across Des Moins, with caregivers matched to each client’s unique needs, daily routines, and personality.
Preferred Care at Home of Des Moines is a locally owned franchise serving Polk County and the greater Des Moines metro in home care since 1984. Every caregiver is placed through our 7-Step Screening Process, with care managers available from one to 24 hours per day.
We match dementia caregivers by personality to reduce confusion from rotating staff, providing peace of mind through the Transparency Room. Explore our dementia and Alzheimer’s care approach.
The Alzheimer’s Association reports 62,100 Iowans age 65 and older live with Alzheimer’s disease, making routine-centered in home care a real local need. Memory care supports your loved one’s daily structure as cognitive symptoms grow harder to manage.
Our experienced and trained caregivers, including CNA/HHA professionals, use cognitive engagement and daily companionship to support memory and routine. Consistent caregiver assignment reduces the confusion that comes from meeting a new face each shift.
Behavioral changes and wandering risk are among the hardest dementia symptoms to manage at home. Our experienced and trained caregivers, including CNA/HHA professionals, develop consistent behavioral approaches that reduce physical distress during difficult moments.
Safety monitoring is built into every visit, and our care managers track behavioral progress and adjust the approach as your loved one’s needs evolve.
Falls are the most serious risk for people with dementia, and Des Moines winters add ice and instability to that challenge. Our experienced and trained caregivers, including CNA/HHA professionals, provide steady assistance with mobility, dressing, and daily movement.
Beyond basic care, we build safety into the routine from day one so small hazards get addressed before they become emergencies.
Iowa’s Alzheimer’s Association reports 62.2% of dementia caregivers live with a chronic health condition, making family education essential. The emotional toll on family caregivers who put their own health and own needs last is real.
Our care process coaches family members on dementia symptoms and how to attend to their own wellbeing. The Transparency Room portal gives families real-time care notes from any browser, with Zoom and FaceTime for out-of-state families.
Familiar faces matter more in dementia care than in almost any other service. In Des Moines, where many seniors live alone, a trusted caregiver is the most stabilizing presence in your loved one’s daily routine.
Preferred Care at Home matches caregivers by personality and life experience, then maintains that pairing with reliable consistency and compassion.
Step 01
Call (515) 444-5520 or send a message to DesMoines@preferhome.com to request a consultation.
Step 02
You describe your loved one’s condition and daily routine during a personalized in-home assessment.
Step 03
You receive a customized care plan covering memory support, safety monitoring, and family communication preferences.
Step 04
You’re matched with a caregiver through our 7-Step Screening Process based on personality and life experience.
Step 05
Your care begins within days of first contact, with Transparency Room access provided from the first visit.
Dementia care in Des Moines comes with real local pressures that most agencies acknowledge in general terms but rarely address with specifics.
Challenge
What It Looks Like
How We Help
Winter isolation and fall risk
What It Looks Like
Des Moines averages 36.5 inches of seasonal snowfall, which heightens anxiety, limits outdoor movement, and increases fall risk for seniors who depend on consistent daily patterns.
How We Help
Our caregivers adjust routines for seasonal conditions, provide mobility and transfer support, and use cognitive engagement to compensate for reduced outdoor activity.
Challenge
Living alone with cognitive decline
What It Looks Like
According to the Iowa State Data Center, 44.6% of adults age 65 and older in Iowa lived alone as of 2022, meaning missed meals and undetected behavioral symptoms are often the first signs a family notices.
How We Help
Our caregivers provide consistent supervision and daily check-ins that catch developing concerns early, with real-time family updates through the Transparency Room portal.
Challenge
Navigating a crowded agency market
What It Looks Like
Caring identifies more than 51 home care agencies in Des Moines, most offering basic care with similar language but few focused on dementia-specific expertise.
How We Help
Our 7-Step Screening Process and personality-based caregiver matching give families a clear, verifiable standard rather than generic reassurance.
Challenge
Underestimating daily care scope
What It Looks Like
In the greater Des Moines metro, many families assume dementia support means a few check-ins per week rather than daily tasks, behavioral management, safety monitoring, family education, and errands.
How We Help
Our service is built around the full scope of daily support, from cognitive engagement and behavioral management to fall prevention and family education.
Challenge
Delay leads to preventable crisis care
What It Looks Like
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, Iowa residents with dementia account for 1,311 emergency department visits per 1,000 people and face an 18.0% hospital readmission rate, and the reality is that unstructured care drives those numbers.
How We Help
We build consistent daily routines through memory care support, safety monitoring, and caregiver continuity to reduce the behavioral deterioration driving preventable emergency visits.
Challenge
Waiting for the right moment to start
What It Looks Like
Des Moines families often wait through Iowa’s long winters for a clear signal, leaving behavioral management and fall prevention unaddressed until a hospitalization forces a rushed decision.
How We Help
We offer same-week consultations so families can start with even a few hours of respite care without a long-term contract, building a plan before the next crisis.
Preferred Care at Home has continued this tradition by only referring the most reliable, compassionate, experienced and affordable caregivers to client’s homes or care facilities.
Yes, Preferred Care at Home of Des Moines, Ankeny, and Urbandale serves families across Polk County and the greater Des Moines metro area.
Preferred Care at Home of Des Moines is locally owned and operated by Joseph Peterson, serving Des Moines, Ankeny, Urbandale, West Des Moines, Windsor Heights, and more than a dozen surrounding communities. Send a message through the contact box at contact-us or call (515) 444-5520.
We offer memory care support, behavioral management, fall prevention, family education, and caregiver continuity for clients with dementia and Alzheimer’s in Des Moines.
Our dementia care program covers cognitive engagement, behavioral management, safety monitoring, fall prevention, family education, and caregiver continuity. We also offer companion care and 24-hour care that work alongside a dementia care plan.
We start with a personalized consultation, build a care plan around your loved one’s needs, match a caregiver by personality, and typically begin care within days.
When you reach out to Preferred Care at Home Des Moines, we schedule a consultation to understand your loved one’s condition and daily routine, then build a care plan and match a caregiver by personality. Seasonal factors like Des Moines winters factor into initial safety and routine planning. Care begins within days, with no long-term contract required.
Dementia home care covers assistance with activities of daily living, cognitive engagement, safety monitoring, behavioral support, and family education in your loved one’s own home.
With Preferred Care at Home Des Moines, dementia home care includes assistance with bathing, dressing, and personal hygiene, as well as meal preparation, errands, cognitive engagement activities, and behavioral management during difficult moments. Our personal care services form the foundation, with dementia-specific behavioral and safety support layered on top.
Early signs like repeated confusion, missed routines, or family caregiver strain signal that in home dementia care in Des Moines makes sense now.
The time to start is before a crisis, not after one. Most Des Moines families wait until a hospitalization forces the conversation, but by that point behavioral patterns have set and building a consistent dementia care routine becomes much harder. The Do You Need In-Home Senior Care quiz can help clarify where your family stands.
Des Moines in-home care is estimated at around $6,006 per month, which compares favorably to assisted living at $6,500 and a nursing home at $8,669 per month.
Preferred Care at Home offers no long-term contracts and care starting at one hour per day. Veterans may benefit from Aid and Attendance, VA Community Care, or the Guide Program. Learn more about paying for home care and veteran benefit options.
Repeated questions in dementia often signal anxiety more than memory failure, and consistent routines with a familiar caregiver reduce the frequency and distress of those moments.
Our Des Moines caregivers are matched for temperament and trained to treat each moment with patience and respect, creating a sense of safety that helps progress toward greater stability. Responding calmly rather than correcting reduces anxiety for your loved one and your family. Consistent memory care support and caregiver continuity create stability and reduce confusion-driven episodes.
Family caregivers in Des Moines can access scheduled respite relief through Preferred Care at Home, as well as support from Aging Resources of Central Iowa.
In Iowa, 28.2% of dementia caregivers report depression, per the Alzheimer’s Association, showing how quickly caregiving becomes unsustainable without relief. Aging Resources of Central Iowa, with centers serving the Des Moines community, provides family caregiver services and some financial assistance for adults age 60 and older. For extended coverage, 24-hour care is also available through our team.
Dementia home care covers a deeper scope than companion care, including behavioral management, safety monitoring, and family education, and is non-medical by design.
Companion care focuses on social engagement, companionship, and light everyday activities; dementia home care adds behavioral management, safety monitoring, and caregiver continuity for clients with cognitive decline. PCAH focuses on personality-matched caregiver continuity rather than a proprietary balanced care method.
Clinically supervised care is a separate category PCAH does not provide. See our companion care or learn what home care means.
Preferred Care at Home of Des Moines typically begins care within days of first contact, with no long-term contract required.
After an initial consultation, care can start within days of contact with our Des Moines team. For families responding to a new diagnosis or hospital discharge, early engagement lets us build a care routine before cognitive decline or caregiver strain reaches a crisis. Join the families we serve and call (515) 444-5520 to move forward.
