Assisted Living Communities in Suffolk, VA

"My mother seems to be doing OK there. They play bingo, watch movies, and there are happy hours. The staff has been excellent, very sweet, and very kind. They know the residents' names within a few days after they're there, so it's very welcoming. Her room for the most part is clean. She was in memory care for a week and the food there was not very good, but since she's been in their assisted living she has enjoyed the food. They have a beauty shop, a library, and a bus service. They've been short on staff a couple of times, but her evening nurse has been really good. It's a brand-new building. The price is extraordinarily high and I'm paying additional money for the actual pills and the packaging, which I wasn't expecting."

"The service at Indian River Residential Care Community is wonderful because this is a facility that all the people there are all in auxiliary grant, which mean that they are not a rich facility and I don't know if they have patients with private pay. There are a lot of things that they do not have. But for people like my son who cannot go even for one month on a private pay and can no longer live on his own, I thank God there is a facility like this. There is no choice menu, but that's alright. These people are happy that somebody is cooking for them. If they don't like what the dinner is, they can always have a sandwich. They don't have a lot of activities and that's very disappointing because I think old people need activities. But for activities, you need money. These are not well read people, so I think a library will be wasted. However, if a van can take them to a dollar store or Walmart once every other week, that will be wonderful. They will have something to look forward to, but they don't have that. There are some downfalls and yet for people who have nowhere else to go, thank God the place is there. I will rate the manager of that facility absolutely the highest mark plus double it. She is a wonder on this earth and all the people in that facilityand these are her words are her children. She is a wonderful human being. She is very good. She does what she has to do. She has taken a person out of there because he is a danger to others. She gives him a number of chances but it comes to a point that she can't keep him there any longer. Nothing is perfect and I am not saying that this place is perfect. Not all people are as nice or understanding or as kind as she. But ultimately she is in charge and she listen when you talk to her. She asks how we are doing and is everything is okay. She speaks with us and gives us a beautiful greeting when we come in. She runs the place beautifully. It is the love of her life and it shows. The people who are there are on auxiliary grant and these are the people who are not well-off at all. They haven't any abundance of anything in life and some of them like my son are mentally ill and other problems. So, they can't go out and earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year so they can go to a private pay. This is a special place for special people. If somebody doesn't have enough money and can get an auxiliary, there is not that many places around to choose from. "

"My Aunt loved here and always loved the activities and the staff were always kind. There was always something to do and someone to spend time with. "

"The staff are very friendly and helpful. The facility and rooms are very clean. The patients are well cared for as well."

"I toured Commonwealth Senior Living at Hampton. They were very professional and they seemed to care about their patients. It seems to be a very nice, clean place. They don't have any outside gardens or anything like that there, which is understandable because we're in the city of Hampton. It was a good experience. The staff was very nice. She even introduced herself and told us about the history of the place. There are no outside activities that I could see. I'm sure they take tours and stuff like that, but in memory care, you're kind of limited in what you can do, but they were nice. They had a nice open floor."

"My mom will move into Commonwealth Senior Living at Leigh Hall. I loved the way it's set up. It used to be in the 1950s, a luxury hotel that they've turned into an assisted living facility, and so when you walk into the main entrance, it opens up into this giant atrium, and that's the common room, and the floors are open. There are skylights, so it's like the natural light coming in, but you can see the blue sky and the clouds above through these big skylights. It was very open, bright, and welcoming, and I love its atmosphere and feel. I like the square footage and the layout of the rooms. They have a kitchenette. The staff was great. I like the ratio of staff to residents. I like the little dining hall, how it was laid out, and it was very open, bright, and cozy. Everything was clean. There were no weird odors or anything like that. A lot of the staff have been there for a long time, and they don't have a very high turnover rate."

"My mother has moved into First Choice Assisted Living. It is excellent. I would recommend them to anybody. The staff members are all very caring. They take care of my mother just like I would care for her. They have activities, but my mother is not in the place right now where she would do those activities. Their food is home cooking and more of a Southern thing. If there is something that they are fixing that you don't eat, they would cater something different. I am welcomed any time of the day or night, and every time I have been there, it has been clean. First Choice is more individually catered. There is a smaller amount of tenants, so you get better care because you get less people to care for."

"I toured The Devonshire. It seems like a nice place. The bedroom size was a little bit small for me. They showed me a one-bedroom, and I preferred to have two. The ones that I met, the lady in the beauty salon, and the receptionist were friendly, and the resident was friendly as well. I saw the physical therapy area, and then I saw the party room."

"My friend moved into the Regent of Newport News. It has a bedroom, living area, and bathroom. I've seen the dining room where they have barbecues, and the outdoor areas where they brought a bar from Ireland over. They don't serve alcoholic drinks. They use that as a backdrop for their big TV room. My friend told me that the food has been excellent. He's had two meals there. He was in the hospital for four months and couldn't stand the hospital food, so the fact that he finds this food appealing is a lot. It's spotless. I was very impressed with its cleanliness. The staff are all so friendly. They seem to want to make the residents pleased with the service that they're getting. The executive director came to my friend's old apartment, and they physically moved the furniture to relieve me, because I live in Florida and I drove up to Newport News. I just had so much to do in such a short amount of time. The executive director drove the Regent van to the apartment, loaded up all of his friend's furniture, and took it back to the Region of Newport News. I thought that it was really special that he personally did that. And they don't have separate nursing fees."

"They were very, very friendly at The Gardens of Virginia Beach. The size of any of the rooms is not great when you think of putting a person in there who's been living in a home with multiple bedrooms, but they were fine. The dining area was very nice. Everybody was eating dinner, and people were saying, "Come on in, sit down, come have a meal with us." It was very inviting. The staff was very pleasant and very amenable to showing their place. It can use a little bit of an upgrade. There weren't a lot of parking. There was like one spot, and I got it."

"I recently toured this facility and was very impressed. The Executive Director showed my wife and I the memory care unit and the assisted living unit. She was extremely helpful and informative. The rooms we saw were attractive and clean and the building had been recently updated. The staff we met were all very pleasant and we observed them being very attentive to the residents. I was very impressed with the feeling of home that the facility projected. The dining area was set up much like a restaurant with menus and a nice selection of meals and there were beautiful garden areas where residents could enjoy the outdoors. I especially liked the small shadow boxes with pictures and mementos that were outside of the rooms in memory care so that the residents were reminded of their lives and people and things that were important to them. I felt it was not only helpful for them but also gave them a sense of home. I found it heart warming to see that the Executive Director seemed to know the residents by name and even knew about things they were interested in and spoke to them as we toured. One resident even asked her to walk with her and she took the time to walk her down the hall. All in all a great place and a wonderful tour. "

"We are choosing Acclaim at East Beach for mom. It's a very active community. It's brand new, so everything is up to code. The apartment is beautiful, and the people are really friendly, both the staff and the residents. The menu looks wonderful, but I have not tried the food. They have classes all the time, classes in arts and different books. There were people doing puzzles, playing bingo, and going on trips. They take them to the movies and the theater. They have shuttles to take the residents to the grocery store and doctor's appointments. The staff was very friendly. The apartment mom is moving into has never been occupied before."

"My mother will be moving into Harmony at Independence. We liked the people, we liked the way it looked, it was new, and they had a balcony. It was kind of perfect for her. The room we saw was large, very airy, and light. There's a lot of light coming in. They offer a movie theater. They have a place where you can go to get PT. They also have a gym, a list of things to do, a long list of events, they do a happy hour three days a week, and movies three days a week. The staff has been very helpful. Generally, overall, the number of events, socialization, the way it was laid out, just about everything was perfect. We would recommend it for anyone."

"My wife is in Harper's Station Yorktown. They care about her. The staff is very good. They have a licensed nurse, and she takes care of her and makes sure she gets her medicine. She's an eater. They fed me a good meal. It's a brand new facility, so it's perfect. They have plenty of activities for all the residents. It's just that my wife is too far into her dementia, so she doesn't participate. It's a lot of money for sleeping and eating."