Applewood Our House on Yank Street and Care Haven Assisted Living on Deframe Court are Golden's 2 respite-offering communities, both small residential care homes. Applewood holds 12 beds; Care Haven holds 8. A guest at either steps into a working household and receives personal care, medication management, and overnight staffing identical to what full-time residents receive, until a set departure date. Three things bring Golden families here: a caregiver needing surgery or travel time; someone leaving Intermountain Health Lutheran Hospital before home is safe; or a household wanting firsthand days inside a building before any permanent decision.
Inside a Golden Small-Home Stay
At Applewood Our House, a short-stay guest joins twelve residents at meals and activities and receives bathing, dressing, and medication help. Care Haven on Deframe Court works the same way: a furnished room, three prepared meals, hands-on care, and overnight staffing. The key difference is care level. Applewood carries both assisted-living and memory-care licenses, so a guest with dementia can receive secured care during the stay. Care Haven is licensed for assisted living only, with no secured memory-care option. At a home this size, one room filling or turning changes the picture in a day, and the memory-care slot at Applewood fills fastest. Each building sets a minimum booking, often two to four weeks.
Pricing and Who Pays
Respite here is charged by the day as a private expense. Jefferson County foothills assisted-living respite runs roughly $185 to $255 daily per current Denver-area cost-of-care figures, with a memory-care room at Applewood priced above that band. That per-day amount exceeds a prorated monthly rate because the home commits a room for a brief stretch. The 2026 national assisted-living respite benchmark lands near $175 a day, and Golden's foothills market runs above it.
Colorado assisted-living short stays fall entirely outside Medicare; its only respite provision covers inpatient breaks for hospice patients, an unrelated benefit. Health First Colorado is built for sustained long-term placements among qualifying residents, not brief private bookings. Veterans' benefits and a qualifying long-term-care insurance policy may offset a portion of the daily charge, so both are worth a look before booking.
Availability in Golden
Golden's senior population sits at roughly 2,700 residents, about 13 percent of a city of 20,200, a younger profile than the broader Jefferson County average shaped by Colorado School of Mines and the foothills workforce. With 20 beds split between two small homes, a single open room is the practical constraint, and the memory-care slot at Applewood needs the most advance notice.
Why Families Book a Golden Short Stay
Keeping a stay in Golden means family visits happen on the way home from work. Clear Creek canyon roads are hazardous for someone still rebuilding strength, and a staffed household with prepared meals is the steadier bridge than an empty mountain-area house. A few weeks inside either building surfaces staff behavior, meal quality, and daily pace that a single walkthrough cannot, and stays here transition to permanent arrangements because living inside the household resolved what had seemed uncertain.
What a Local Advisor Brings to a Golden Search
Applewood Our House on Yank Street is Golden's only address for secured memory-care respite; Care Haven on Deframe Court fits an assisted-living guest who does not need a locked wing. Which holds an open room on a specific week, what it charges per day, and its current minimum stay all shift as the 20-bed total turns over.
A Jefferson County advisor checks current availability at both Golden homes before a family commits to any timeline. Start the conversation here to get a read on both buildings.
