Five Star Senior Living

My friend moved here after having a terrible experience elsewhere, and the difference is like night and day. This is a lovely community, it's a like a hotel! She is doing so much better here, and is much happier now. Considering this is about the same price she was paying before this location is a MUCH better value!

Nice facility, did not meet our needs regarding space and budget...$5105 quote...way out of budget!

This is a very nice community, Mom is enjoying herself a lot. She is becoming quite the social butterfly, getting along well with everyone, and participating in lots of activities! The community is very active, which is especially nice for Mom. They really need to work on the food. They talked it up during the tour and it left a lot to be desired, fairly bland and not a lot of variety.

Forwood Manor was wonderful, I was looking at assisted living, thinking perhaps his wife would be able to be there and take care of him. Ultimately she decided to stay home and we went with a different community but this was my first choice. The dining room was gorgeous. There was a lot space and the activities room was very large. Very clean and friendly.

My mom was there for 8 years in the independent living but I knew I wasn't going to put her into the assisted living there. The independent living is great because of the quality of the place as well as the quality of the living. The building is very well maintained. It was very solidly built in the first place and they've maintained it beautifully since. My mother-in-law also lived there for about 8 years. We really liked it a lot but the assisted living side is more like stick them in a hospital room and be done with it kind of thing. Neither my mother nor my mother-in-law were particularly enamored with the assisted living there.

I had lunch here when I was thinking about moving my parents in. The facility is brand new and very nice. The food was very good. We liked the place, but we decided to go with one closer to me in Philadelphia.

My mom is also on hospice besides the care there because she really needs a high level of care. We have an all inclusive contract for $150 a day, meaning that they will never charge us more based on the level of care that she needs. The only thing extra that we pay is for TV and the beauty salon. They do usually have activities, and entertainment in the summer every weekend, but this month there is not much scheduled at all. The people are very bored. I have heard them complain that they wish there was something to do. In the summer, their plantings outside are gorgeous but they need to water them! The food there was good. They just had a turn over in management. The director is gone and they have someone in the interim until they can find a new person. I am not sure why they had the turnover.

My mother-in-law is still relatively new there so the assessment of her care is an ongoing thing but the care is good so far. There's plenty of activities. Just from looking at the bulletin you can tell that there is pretty much something to do everyday. I like it because it's relatively new. It has a modern look and feel to it. There's a lot of things there for families to do. They've got all these different rooms that residents and families can use for birthday parties and weddings and things. There is even a kids' room with toys. I think their initial assessment could be improved. It relies too much on the resident's interview rather than interviewing previous care center personnel.

4680 for 1 bedroom + 200 + 200 meds Gina very helpful

I really did like the facility . The staff and the rooms were nice. I think it had been redone. It was really close to my son which would have been very convenient. We went out there a couple of times to walk around and my son thought it was nice too. It's a two story assisted living and memory care. The assisted living was to the right and to the left was the memory care which was more of a lock down facility. It was a great place. I really liked it. It was really nice and clean and new and the staff was great. I was impressed with the facility, itself. It had a lot of pluses in taking dad to dialysis and stuff like that.

My only concern is they keep losing all their employees. They did have a price increase right after we got there but I would still give the value a 4 or 5 because compared to the last place, there is a lot of communication and my mom gets a lot of attention. They have a calender of activities but we don't always see it being done but that had to do with them always losing their employees. Overall we've definitely been happy there. The thing that I find lacking is the structure of the activities. My children and my dad and I visit frequently. They are very open to us having family activities using the community room but I think for what the community has going on there is too much idle time. The last two activity directors didn't even stay. I do really like that they call us all the time about my mom's care. They is great communication between the staff and the doctor and us. Everything is organized; they communicate and the follow through.

It was actually a pretty good choice but they were expensive for the same care that we could get at another place. At the time we were trying to move my wife they were having some sort of management change or something, I think. Otherwise they would have been a good option for us.

He likes it there, I think it's a pretty nice place and he's one of the few men that are there, there's a lot of women, but they're taking care of him. He's doing a lot better now than he was, we were pretty worried about him for awhile there and it finally dawned on him that he needed help and Huntington seems to be taking good care of him. Overall, I would say it's pretty good.

Every so often the meal planning could use some improvement, the food is very good but occassionally the planning is not what I would have preferred. For instance, they would have rice twice in a dish, like rice and vegetables and then rice in the soup. For some of is that's an issue but there are choices. The most difficult part is finding physicians and getting them, five star provides transportation to certain areas at certain times so finding one can be difficult but the guy who drives us is fantastic. There's a lot of activities, something always going on, sometimes it's hard to choose what to do.

For the most part, the staff seem to be very friendly and eager to have new residents. Most importantly my father-in-law is very happy there. He finds the staff friendly and helpful. He loves the food and the constant companionship with other residents. There were some bumps getting him settled in such as no guidance to set up phone service in advance and one pushy LPN who was trying to do an admission assessment before her shift ended. Other than that it was positive.

People at residence are all very nice and attentive. Initially we were told that residents are checked on every 2 hours, but have sat with with residents for hours without anyone coming by. Resident was skipped for a meal two weeks into stay. Not sure if they are assisting resident in bathing. Pulled call string once to see response time and it went well over 23 minutes.

What we noticed was overall the personell was very friendly, it was a very decent place, but it looked like it was maybe 10 years old or more. The portion where they have memory care people, the Haven part I think it is, my sister and my niece noticed an odor emanating from the community bathroom so that was unappealing. The other problem was that it was located my farther than was convinient for my sister.

This was a nice facility and the staff was very helpful and forthcoming. I don't think that this is a proper fit for my father just because he functions at a higher level and needs a more mentally stimulating environment.

I don't interact with the staff a whole lot but the ones I have been are a five. The thing I like about Riverwalk is the smell, because some of them (more of the nursing homes), you walk in and you smell urine and this doesn't smell like anything; so that was a big plus for me. I like that she has her own room and I like all the activities that she can do, she's made a lot of friends. I know she kind of fusses about her showers, she gets 3 a week and she wants to take more but I'm in agreement with them, she doesn't need to shower everyday. When we first looked at Riverwalk Commons and my mother got evaluated, the nurse said she was at the bottom level of care and 3 weeks later she was at the top, so they're going ot re evaluate her because the nurse said when they're in a better environment they usually perk up. Also, when she moved in, Riverwalk Commons was having a move-in incentive, I think it was free or at a reduced price, they have a moving company they partner with and they were just awesome.

My mother has lived here for 5-6 years. It has changed hands 2-3 times in that time period and the care and responsiveness has seemed to go down, though not hugely. When my mother first moved in, many of the employees were social workers, including the sales people and the overseer of senior life. When my mother was thinking about moving in, the sales director talked to her about waiting until she was ready and not rushing into it--no pressure, only compassion. They would talk about team staff meetings to address things like residents falling asleep in public areas. Instead, of it being a negative, they looked into why this was happening and how to help the particular residents. Now it is much more of a business model. Apartments and facilities are beautiful, but pricey. My mother lives in a large (1110 sq. ft.) apartment with 2 beds and 2 baths. Activities vary, with lots of card playing and movies (a plus for some seniors, boring for others), and some trips to restaurants, stores, museums, shows, etc. There are also 2 days a week for transportation for local errands, and 2 other days for local doctors' appointments. There is a pharmacy nearby that delivers, usually one trip to the building per day. Staff are very helpful. When residents can't open a jar, they bring them down to meals and someone opens it for them. If they can't get their cable to work, someone comes to help with that, too. There have been some issues with air conditioning not working as well as it should both in individual apartments and in common areas. At one point it seemed they were keeping the hallways warmer in the summer to save money, and some residents were actually having minor breathing difficulties with the transition of the air. Residents complain of the food not being as good any more, but I have not noticed that when I eat there. The number of choices have food have decreased and residents are not happy about that, but there are still many choices. When my mother moved in, there were "heart healthy" choices on the menu; there no longer are. One resident, told by her doctor to reduce salt content, tried to get adjusted meals, couldn't, and moved to a different facility because of this. In the years my mother has been there, the monthly price has increased from $6100 to almost $7200. New residents are actually getting nicer apartments for much less because of the economy, which also adds to the disgruntlement. On the other hand, we looked into switching apartments to downsize a bit. I assumed they would jack up the prices according to the number of years she has been there, but she was given the same price as a newcomer.