Assisted Living Communities in Salem, VA

"Commonwealth is very nice place. I haven't lived at the assisted living, but I have lived in the independent living in their other place over at Radford. Then I found this house available for rent so I moved. I really like it. It is an attached house where I have three bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining area, and a living room. It is a very nice and very lovely home. I have a gas fireplace and a sunroom. There is no outside care because it is taken care of for us. Last night they had the Blacksburg Community Orchestra there and had an ice cream social. Before the concert, they had hors d'oeuvres, and that was quite nice. The help are very nice people, but they don't seem to be extremely well trained. I believe they can be better trained. They do have transportation to different places like to doctors if you need it. "

"Runk & Pratt (Smith Moutain Lake) is a very nice place. We are very pleased with it and it's very clean. Mom has a private room with two large windows for plenty of light. It's big enough; we have a love seat and a recliner, nightstands and a chest of drawers. "

"Commonwealth Senior Living at Radford was a good spot but too expensive. It seemed great and the room that the staff showed us was good. It would have been easy access, but it was too expensive. It wasn't super expensive but it was too much for us. The room was clean and close to different things if my mother needed anything. The independent living people would have been able to cross the parking lot to the assisted living if they wanted to join in with what they're doing. It had a community feel to it."

"Carriage Hill Retirement had their own memory care that was separate. The rooms were a nice size, and the showers were in the room. They were able to eat in their memory care unit. I saw their food, and it looked good. The staff who gave the tour was very nice and very professional."

"We went to Salem Terrace. They were all wonderful. I really like that. I was really impressed with them because they took all the time in the world with us during the visit. The staff was dressed very professionally. We did go to the dementia unit and it was fully staffed. There were people one-on-one and they were assisting their residents, walking around with them and doing things with them. There was nobody just sitting around. They also showed us where people could have family members in if they wanted to have a little get-together. The lobby area was very clean, the carpets were spotless, and there was no hint of odor, which is a biggie for me. They would immediately clean their rooms. I was really impressed that there was shadow box on the front of each room. They have a library, a beauty parlor, a theater room and internet room, which was a big thing for my sister-in-law. They also played bingo there. They have two dining areas. They showed us the menu and it looked like they had a wonderful selection where they could choose. "

"My mother was at the Memory Care Center for 13 months. They took her on a moment's notice when my dad had a heart attack and could no longer care for her. Staff were very kind to her, worked with her at the level where she was, not where they wanted her to be. She was coaxed to eat, encouraged to participate in activities as she could, and allowed to be alone if she wished. When her condition worsened, staff worked with us and Hospice to make her final days as peaceful as possible. I would highly recommend them to anyone. "

"I liked the lady that showed The Oaks to me. She’s very caring, very nice, and very understanding. I liked the facility. The rooms were very nice, very clean, and there’s plenty of room. "

"I visited my father there a couple of times only since I now moved here in Delaware. So now I am planning for him to live with me. VVCC is close to my home when I lived in Virginia and for one my father is a veteran so that's why we had decided to have him live there. The people working there are fantastic and they really like him a lot. He has his own room and he is very comfortable there. He is very satisfied with everything there. I haven't heard any complaints from him about the place there. "

"Brandon Oaks is one of the best retirement communities in the Roanoke Valley. I have several acquaintances with family there, and they all rave about it. "

"It is a very nice place, and the food is excellent. I wanted my mother to go there. They also have a long term care attached."

"My parents have moved into Woodland Hills assisted living. I've been there frequently, and the food is incredible. For activities, they have bingo and just tons of stuff. They have some kind of a safari thing they run where they have the zoo come in. They have a philharmonic orchestra with some instruments come in and just all sorts of things like movies. They have two nurses on every shift and one of the top chefs in the valley."

"We toured Our Lady of the Valley, and we really liked it. It was huge, and it was very clean. During COVID they had a bunch of upgrades built on, so they had a new movie theater room and they had a chapel. There were plenty of parking spots and there were a lot of activities. It seemed like the people there were happy. We met several people, they seemed very engaged. Just as we walked through, we saw a lot of people sitting with staff members and talking, and they were greeted. It's not like they're grumbling staff, and I think people actually seem happy working there. They have a huge covered porch in front with lots of comfortable seating, and the porch was full every time we came through. The gal that walked us around said that the porch was one of the popular places. People were sitting out there, talking, laughing, and enjoying the weather. The inside was very clean, and the dining hall was nice, there were round tables, a long table, and square tables. One of the things I liked was you didn't have to sit with the same people every time, and there was a room in the back if you wanted to have like a larger group. The staff probably use it for some of their meetings, but she said it was available if people wanted to have a larger group; they could go back there. When we were there it was Manicure and Pedicure Day, and a whole group of women was all doing nails together. There was a salon there where people were getting their hair done. I looked at the list of activities and there were actually a few during the week. There were some things available every day, and they did movies a couple of days a week. They had fun things to do every week, like going somewhere on the bus, or a Trivia Day. They had a really good activity director there, she's doing a good job. My concern was that the room my mom would get into would be small, like a dorm room. She said it was fine because I can upgrade later. Over the next months, they are going to essentially renovate most of those single rooms to be larger rooms, and it's going to be a big undertaking, it's going to make the facility even better. Because at that point, it was kind of like the size of a smaller hotel room where you walk in and you have a bathroom on one side, a little kitchen area on the right, and then it opened up so you could have a bed, some chairs, and a little table. I think it's livable. But the idea is you don't live in your room, you go out and you hang out and do stuff with everybody."

"My 64 year old brain-injured, bipolar brother lives here and they are very patient and caring with him even though he sometimes screams at workers for the least thing that displeases him. He has been in other more upscale locations that did not tolerate his idiosyncracies. This facility is clean, the staff approachable, and the caretakers are vigilant without being oppressive. Also, the price has not increased in the 6 years he has resided there! "

"We have known Friendship Manor for years because we've kind of grown up in this community since the 60's. It's a massive facility now all over the valley. The people that we talked to were excellent. They answered all our questions regarding Medicaid, the facility, and services. I can't say anything bad about the staff. The staff interacted with residents. The lady who took us around was very informative. However, the whole facility is basically a hospital floor. Residents are only allowed to have a hospital bed. They cannot bring in any chairs or recliners or anything from their home. They were well taken care of, that was obvious. It was clean, but the actual facility offered nothing as far as homeyness or being welcoming. It literally was a hospital floor that they left exactly the same and put a memory care residence in. The staff who toured us was very accommodating. She worked with our schedule, and she was extremely knowledgeable. She knew what mom would need and what they could offer. She was very helpful with Medicaid, with any of the processes there, and guided us as if we were going to need that to help supplement her being able to pay for this. Honestly, it was $8,400. We were just flabbergasted. It would have been very sad because there was nothing there: no flowers and no garden. They had a 4th-floor balcony as their outdoor area that was completely concrete, nothing inviting or welcoming at all with it. I was just very disappointed with what we saw there. We would never have considered it for her. I felt like the care level was very good though. The staff interacted with the residents. I didn't see anyone sitting alone like what you think of people doing in a nursing home in memory care. You'd kind of think of them being pushed aside. The residents in Friendship were all in various areas where they could be monitored by staff. I don't feel like there was any problem with actual care. I think they were very well taken care of."