A guide to memory care facilities near Preston Hollow and North Dallas in 2026, covering Texas Type B licensing, real cost ranges, and how to vet a community.
By Dallas Senior Advisor Care Team · August 21, 2026
Preston Hollow, together with the broader North Dallas corridor stretching toward Far North Dallas and the Dallas North Tollway, sits among the most established senior-care markets in the metro. Families here are often choosing between staying close to University Park and Highland Park, where an aging parent has lived for decades, and considering communities slightly farther out along Preston Road or near the Galleria area where newer memory care buildings have opened in the last several years. Proximity to UT Southwestern Medical Center and Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas matters for this population specifically, since residents with Alzheimer's or related dementia frequently cycle through hospital stays for falls, infections, or medication complications, and a facility's relationship with a nearby health system can shorten those transitions.
Inventory in this pocket of Dallas skews toward smaller, higher-staffed memory care wings attached to larger assisted living campuses rather than freestanding mega-facilities, which is different from what a family might find searching Frisco or Las Colinas. That matters when comparing price, because a 40-bed dedicated memory care unit with a locked courtyard and a 1-to-6 staff ratio is a different product than a 12-bed memory wing folded into a larger assisted living building, even if both show up under the same search term.
Texas does not issue a separate memory-care license the way some states do. Instead, dementia care is delivered inside a Type B Assisted Living Facility license under Texas Health & Safety Code Chapter 247 and 26 Texas Administrative Code Chapter 553. Type B facilities are licensed for residents who need staff assistance to evacuate the building in an emergency, which in practice describes most people living with moderate to advanced dementia. A Type A facility, by contrast, is licensed only for residents who can self-evacuate without help, which is why you will rarely see a legitimate memory care unit operating under a Type A license alone.
Facilities that market a dedicated memory care program can also carry an optional Alzheimer's/dementia certification on top of their Type B license, which requires additional staff training hours and a written care philosophy specific to dementia. When touring a community near Preston Hollow or North Dallas, ask directly whether the memory care wing is separately licensed as Type B and whether it holds the state's Alzheimer's certification — not every marketing brochure that says 'memory care' actually carries both, and the HHSC Long-Term Care Provider Search at apps.hhs.texas.gov will show you the facility's actual license type and any recent inspection citations before you tour.
Across the Dallas–Fort Worth metro, memory care in 2026 generally runs $4,800 to $7,000 per month, but North Dallas and Preston Hollow-adjacent communities tend to land in the upper half of that range or above it, often $6,200 to $8,500 per month depending on room type and acuity level. That premium reflects both real estate costs in the 75225, 75230, and 75248 ZIP codes and the smaller staff-to-resident ratios that many families specifically want for a parent with advanced dementia. A private room with a secured courtyard access typically costs more than a shared room, and most communities add a second-tier 'enhanced care' fee once a resident needs two-person transfer assistance or has significant behavioral needs.
It's worth budgeting for move-in costs beyond the monthly rate: a community assessment fee, sometimes a one-time entrance or community fee in the $2,000–$5,000 range, and the cost of any furniture or medical equipment not provided by the facility. Texas Medicaid's STAR+PLUS Home and Community Based Services waiver can help pay for personal care and attendant services, but it does not cover memory care room and board, so most families in this price bracket are paying privately, through long-term care insurance, or through a combination of the two while a VA Aid & Attendance benefit — if the resident is a qualifying veteran or surviving spouse — offsets part of the monthly cost.
Beyond the standard questions about staffing ratios and activity calendars, ask what happens during a behavioral episode: does the community have a documented de-escalation protocol, and under what circumstances would they discharge a resident to a psychiatric geriatric unit rather than manage the episode in place? Ask how the community coordinates with UT Southwestern's or Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas's discharge planners when a resident is hospitalized, since a facility with an established relationship will usually move faster to hold the resident's bed and re-admit than one with no history there. Also ask specifically how the community handles wandering risk at night, since door alarm systems and staffing levels after 9 p.m. vary widely even among communities that look similar during a daytime tour.
Ask to see the facility's most recent HHSC inspection report rather than relying on the community's own summary of it — Texas inspection reports are public record and will show whether prior citations involved medication administration, staffing shortfalls, or something more serious. A community that hesitates to produce this report, or that only offers a marketing packet in response, is worth treating with more scrutiny than one that hands it over immediately.
A common situation in this part of the metro: the parent has lived in Preston Hollow or the Park Cities for 30-plus years, but adult children have since moved to Plano, Frisco, or out of state entirely, and no one is nearby to visit daily or respond to a call from the facility at 2 a.m. In DFW's sprawling, car-dependent geography, 'close to family' and 'close to the parent's longtime doctors and church' are frequently not the same neighborhood, and families have to weigh continuity of relationships against practical visiting distance. Some families choose a community slightly north, closer to where an adult child actually lives, and accept that the parent will need to build new relationships with a new physician group; others prioritize keeping the parent near UT Southwestern and existing specialists and manage visits with a rotating schedule among siblings.
There is no universally right answer, but it helps to be explicit about the tradeoff rather than defaulting to whichever option feels most familiar. If driving distance is the deciding factor, map the actual commute time from each adult child's home during rush hour, not just the mileage — a 12-mile drive on the Dallas North Tollway at 5 p.m. can take 45 minutes, which changes how realistic frequent evening visits really are.
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