Nursing Homes focus on not dying, assisted living focuses on living.
Nursing homes were designed to replace literal nurses in hospitals. Hospitals were where we kept the elderly and permanently disabled, but since they never really recovered from those needs they quickly overran the hospitals. They used to go to “poor houses” which were nothing short of jails for the mentally and/or physically unfit.
Assisted living gives those with some needs an option for those needs to be met without sacrificing their freedoms to pursue what gives their life meaning and purpose. They don’t have patients, they have residents. They don’t set their resident’s schedules nor enforce any rules. They’re simply there when needed. This is a much preferred alternative to that of the “nursing home” where freedoms are stripped away and people are forced to live a regimented lifestyle designed to maximize the number of times they wake up in the morning, at the expense of their desire to wake up in the morning.