Continuing Care Retirement Communities Communities in Roanoke, VA

"Brandon Oaks has a great reputation. It is beautiful, but it is out of my price range. They're extremely friendly. I had lunch there and it was great. They have a library. They have everything. They have a pool and a tennis court. You name it, they have it. There's a hospital right down the road, and there's a big shopping center and a restaurant there. You name it, it's there. With regards to upkeep, it's spotless. It's very well maintained."

"My husband is currently at the Virginia Veterans Care Center. They've done a very good job with him, and they're doing regular, weekly COVID testing, and they've been very diligent in keeping that out of there. Even though they have a lot of cases now, they've actually done a very good job. Everybody's been fine, everybody's been very professional, and there's good communication with everybody up there. He seems satisfied with the food."

"My tour of Woodland Hills Community was very good. It was a very lovely facility because it's quite new, so it's very beautiful. And they have some unique features for their residents that are quite nice. One is that they offer enrichment classes for their residents. The residents can learn about all kinds of things while they're there during these enrichment sessions. They have a beautiful facility. The rooms that they used for respite were lovely. They were like one-bedroom apartments. The kitchens in the entrance area of the room were a little bit cramped, so we weren't quite sure how that would work with a wheelchair or a walker. That was one concern we had about the rooms in that facility. But the dining area was lovely, and the menu looked like gourmet food. The chef was from Italy. We talked with a couple of residents, so that was helpful. Overall, it was a very nice facility, but they required a 30-day respite stay."

"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."

"The staff at Friendship Health North Campus was friendly, answered our questions, and seemed to interact with residents very well. The facility was clean and their accommodations were pretty common as far as what a nursing home would be. The room sizes were a little bit bigger than where my mom was, but you still had two people per room. The only thing I didn't like was if you want to visit a resident, you cannot visit them in the room, I think it's for security reasons. However, they take them on trips to different places and sometimes just for sightseeing locally in the mountains or something like that. They have an activities director that has a pretty good activities calendar and group activities for them. They also have a courtyard. The facility was just well maintained."

"We have been in a couple of the apartments in Richfield, but it would be a year before we could move in. It's beautiful. If you have to go to assisted living or into a nursing home, they have great facilities. The staff was great. Everybody there was great. There are different levels of living apartments. They have t'ai chi, which I'm very much interested in, exercise groups, different things, and a chapel. The building is absolutely beautiful."