Disclaimer: This overview is for informational purposes only and is not an endorsement. Services, availability, and licensing can change – please verify current details directly with the facility.

Moving into board and care in Thousand Oaks begins with the LIC 602, the physician's report California requires before anyone can move in.

Small homes feel the paperwork more than large ones do. With six beds, a single delayed form can hold up the only opening they have, and the family behind you in line is often ready to go. Getting the exam done at home, rather than booking a clinic visit weeks out, is usually what keeps a date on the calendar.

Melos Care Home is at 348 W Avenida de los Arboles in Thousand Oaks, licensed by the state as a Residential Care Facility for the Elderly, license number 567609672, with a licensed capacity of six residents. The licensee and administrator is Edwin Paul Oyasan, and the home has been licensed since 2019.

What a Six-Bed Board and Care Home Is Really Like

It is a house, with six people living in it. That one sentence covers most of what makes this model different from everything else on a shortlist, and families who tour a large community first usually feel the change the moment they walk through the door. The scale is domestic rather than institutional.

There is no lobby, no activities calendar on a noticeboard, no dining room with forty tables. There is a kitchen where the meals are cooked, a living room where most of the day happens, and bedrooms down a hallway. Residents eat what the house eats, at the table, at the same time.

The trade is scale for attention. A caregiver in a six-bed home knows how each resident takes their coffee and what their normal looks like, which is how small changes get noticed early. What you give up is choice: fewer activities, fewer neighbors, and less to do if your parents are still socially active and wants a crowd.

That trade decides the fit more than anything on a price sheet. A frail, quiet, easily overwhelmed person usually does better here. Someone who still wants a card game, a gym, and a dining room full of people usually does not.

Board and Care or Assisted Living: What the License Says

In California both carry exactly the same license. A six-bed home like this one and a ninety-apartment community down the road are both Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly, inspected by the same state division under the same regulations. Families are often surprised by that, because the marketing language around the two could not sound more different.

So the words board and care, residential care home, and assisted living describe size and style, not legal standing. What actually differs is staffing patterns, the building, the price, and how much structure the day has. None of that appears in the license category.

The licensing division's own senior care licensing pages are where to confirm a facility's current status and look up its record. The license number is the key, since it identifies one specific building rather than an operator who may run several.

Thousand Oaks families often tour both models in the same week and find the comparison confusing. The breakdown of what the license behind a Conejo Valley home does and does not tell you is worth reading before the first tour rather than after the third.

What to Ask When You Tour a Small Home

The National Institute on Aging (2023) recommends a second visit without calling ahead, at a different time of day, ideally at a mealtime, when you choose any long-term care facility. In a six-bed house that advice carries more weight than it does anywhere else, because one unannounced hour shows you nearly the whole operation.

Its question list adapts well to this setting: how many caregivers per resident and what training they have, how long the staff have worked there, whether a doctor checks on residents regularly and how often, what activities fill a week, whether there is a safe place to sit outside, and how residents get to medical appointments.

Add two that matter specifically in small homes. Ask who covers the overnight shift and whether that person is awake or sleeping, since the answer varies and the state allows both depending on the residents accepted. Then ask what happens when one caregiver calls in sick, because in a six-bed house there is no float pool.

Ask about costs the same way you would anywhere: what the base rate includes, what is billed separately, and what triggers a rate increase. A home this size usually charges a flat monthly rate with a care level on top, and the care level is where the surprises live.

If you are visiting several homes across the Conejo Valley, taking the same checklist to each one is what makes the real differences visible. Four tours blur together within a week otherwise, and what survives is a vague impression of which one smelled nicest rather than which one can actually meet the care needs you came in with.

How Medical Care and Appointments Work

A licensed care home is a residence, not a medical facility. Caregivers give medicines as prescribed and watch for changes from day to day, but residents keep their own doctors, and nothing clinical happens inside the house unless somebody comes in to do it. Knowing that early changes which questions you ask on a tour.

In a small home, that outside appointment carries a cost nobody writes down. A caregiver who leaves to take one resident to a clinic is a caregiver who is not in the house with the other five, which is why appointments tend to get bundled, delayed, or quietly skipped.

Arranging for a doctor to visit the home solves both halves of that problem. Routine checks, medication reviews, and follow-ups happen in the resident's own room, and the caregiver who sees them every day is there to say what has actually changed.

For the appointments that genuinely require leaving, such as imaging, dialysis, or a specialist, non-emergency medical transport fills the gap. MediZoom Transportation covers Thousand Oaks and the surrounding Ventura County communities with wheelchair-accessible and ambulatory rides, including hospital discharge and post-procedure transfers.

The Avenida de los Arboles Neighborhood

The home sits on West Avenida de los Arboles in northern Thousand Oaks, a residential part of the Conejo Valley in Ventura County. The surrounding streets are quiet, suburban, and flat enough for short walks, which suits residents who are still steady on their feet.

Being inside Thousand Oaks rather than out beyond it keeps medical services, pharmacies, and hospitals within a normal drive rather than an expedition. For the adult children doing the visiting, proximity usually decides how often visits actually happen, and a home fifteen minutes from work is visited far more than one forty-five minutes away.

The operator also runs a second licensed home nearby, Melos Care Home II at 362 Camino Manzanas in Thousand Oaks, license number 565850338, also licensed for six residents. If one house has no opening in the month you need, it is worth asking about the other.

Taking the Next Step

Call first and ask two things: whether a bed is open, and what level of care they are able to accept right now. A six-bed home can take a resident whose needs match its staffing and has to decline one whose needs do not, so this conversation saves a wasted tour.

Then visit twice: once by appointment, and once unannounced at a mealtime. If both visits leave you comfortable, ask what paperwork they need and by when, and start the physician's report straight away rather than waiting for a signed agreement. The form stays valid wherever your parent ends up, so nothing is wasted by starting it early.

If you are weighing several board and care homes around Thousand Oaks and running out of weekends, a senior placement agency can narrow the list to homes with a genuine opening at the right care level. The service is usually free to families.

Contact and Verification Details

Melos Care Home, 348 W Avenida de los Arboles, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360. Phone (805) 590-6386. License number 567609672, licensed capacity six residents. The home does not publish a website of its own, so tours, pricing, and current availability are all arranged by phone rather than online. Call in the morning if you can, since that is when most small homes are easiest to reach.

Confirm the licence status, capacity, and any inspection or complaint history with the California Department of Social Services before you sign an admission agreement. Details in any overview, including this one, can change, and the state record is the version that counts.