Brookdale Fort Myers Lakes Park

Mom was at Brookdale Fort Myers Lake Park. The feel of the place is very nice although I was not a fan of the security. They have no cameras for security, and that is worrisome. I think all assisted living facilities need to do something with the security for their residents because it?s supposed to be their home. People come and go in their apartments, and there's so many of them. When mom first moved in, her eyesight wasn?t that bad so she was able to play games and arts and crafts. She goes to their outdoor trips as well. Their activities director was great.

We visited Brookdale Fort Myers Lakes Park. It’s an extremely nice facility, but a little bit out of our price range. The rooms were very nice. The whole facility was very nice, large, and open. A lot of the residents were mobile and very healthy looking.

I was invited to a party. I went back to Brookdale Fort Myers Lakes, and I was glad I did. I met some of the residents. They were really quite charming and interesting. I took another look around the common areas. The way it was decorated was rather drab. At first, I thought it was kind of dirty, and it should be replaced. That wasn't the case. It was just drab. There wasn't any life to the decoration, but it was clean. The food was excellent. I ate lunch there. The woman was very friendly, and she must be a very caring person. One thing that I didn't care for over there was that there were only 42 residents. It seemed that it was a little small for me. The room was another thing that I didn't care for. It was very small. The biggest one was small, and I didn't even see the smallest one. She showed me one room, and it was occupied because it was full, so she had to had to take you to a room that somebody was living in to show you what the rooms looked like. The room that she took me to was not exactly ready to be looked at by a prospective person; it was messy and not clean. That kind of turned me off. I couldn't really envision me living there, frankly. I saw their activities list, and there weren't as many as the bigger ones, but that didn't bother me so much. The personnel were very friendly.

My husband is in Sterling House of Fort Myers now. It was closer for me and I had visited it and talked to the people there. I was going to use it as a respite care facility while I went to the family reunion. But he needed it before the reunion, so I got him situated there. The staff is wonderful, very frank, and they are doing a good job. He is not always cooperative, but they are doing a good job.

We visited Sterling House, and I liked it. The people were very nice, and we enjoyed the tour. However, the rooms were not that appealing because they were small and very bright.

I thought Sterling House was very homey. The staff seemed caring, and the facility seemed very clean. They have musical programs, movie night, and Wi-Fi activities. Somebody reads the news everyday. They're small apartments, but they seemed well-kept. So far, she's OK with the food. They used linen napkins and tablecloths, and it seems nicely served. There seems to be variety, and they seem to let the residents have what they want.

We picked Sterling House of Fort Myers for my dad because it's closer to us. Also I like the fact that it's a coded facility. You have to have a code to come in. Whereas some of the other places you can come and go as you wanted to, and I don't like that for my dad. I really like this facility. It's a smaller facility. I think they have 40 rooms. Unlike the other facility, this one has a quaint area. However, even though my dad has just turned 70, most of the residents there are significantly older and that's the only thing I don't like about it. With regards to food, I did eat there and it is really good food. They don't give that much portion for us but I think it is because the residents don't eat that much. Residents there do get to eat pretty good portions a day; they have snacks all day. So food is good, and unlike with other facility, it is not expensive to eat with your loved ones there. For activities, they do a lot of memory games, they have Wii bowling tournaments, they have someone that comes in and plays the piano, etc. However, I would like them to have more activities because they have a lot of older residents there that may not want to participate, but they should have something for everybody. Nevertheless, I love the people who work there. The lady that runs the admissions is very nice but I like the director a lot. She's really nice. She is quite on top of things. She likes to solve the problem herself so we don't have to be involved because she knows we have enough stress going on. If you complain about anything, she gets it done. She is very helpful. We haven't really seen any of that in the other facility that we had been to so far. Also my dad is not an easy person to deal with sometimes, but these people seem to know how to deal with him. They get the point across and make it okay.

I like Sterling House. It is small and a little quaint, but it's a nice place. Their rooms were also small. I just need to wait to see where my grandmother's going to be medically at this point when I decided to put her in this type of place.

My mom stayed in Sterling House before she passed away. We liked that place because it was small and kind of comfortable. It was just a nice place to be. They made you feel good. I liked the employees there. She didn't stay there that long but everybody was very nice to her.

Sterling House is a small facility. I think it only had 45 units or 45 beds. The lady who I met was very accommodating and she explained how the facility works and gave us a very good tour. She also followed up with me many, many times over period of time and I found that to be very helpful. They really kept in touch with me and they didn't harass me. If I need them in the future, I know where to look now. They were very comforting and the facility was very nicely kept and very clean

My mom has moved into Sterling House. The staff and facility are very nice. My mom doesn't have any complaints except that the food is in small portions. She also said the oatmeal was horrible.

I am a former HHA caregiver of one of the residents at Sterling House. During the time I spent there as a caregiver, I found the facility very warm and inviting for both residents and visitors. The staff who take care of the residents in their rooms and on the floor also wait on residents in the dining room. I had never seen this work combination before, but I witnessed over and over how well this arrangement seemed to work. The staff worked well with each other and were very attentive to their residents....whether on the floor or in the dining area. I had previously worked in Activities/Life Enrichment in a large 5 star skilled nursing facility in Naples and was used to things on a grander scale. However, I found the inviting warmth and friendliness of Sterling House and its' staff more suited to my tastes, as it is more personal. The food was varied, well balanced and above in overall quality. The gardens in the middle of the facility provide a great place for residents to spend time out of doors, a screened in porch in which to get out of the sun. I also appreciated the fact that the facility accepts pets, as this was immeasurably important to the resident I cared for. I would highly recommend this facility for a loved one. It is also a very caregiver friendly facility, which you do not find everywhere. I now work in an assisted living facility which houses 160 residents and is again as where I had worked before, on a grand scale with overwhelming amenities. However, I still miss this overall atmosphere of the smaller, homey Sterling House.

This facility was arranging in a ring around a central garden which was nice as it provided a long walk for residents without going outside into the heat. The garden was a bit too cement and could have been more lush with spots for residents to plant and tend the beds. The halls had safety rails and benches or alcoves with chairs and games, but I thought the maroon color scheme made it look dates and not fresh. The resident rooms were in two sections, but arranged such that the natural space for the bed was the only place with windows. I wanted my father to sit in his chair where the sun near the window and the staff though this odd to have the bed right at the entrance. The bathroom was large and the kitchenette was nice. The dinning was in a large room which had a feeling like a restaurant. The staff were professional and helpful and very attentive of my father. I thought they needed better office space as it was very cramped and I could not even fit into an office to discuss the account in a meeting. This facility offered a good mix of residents that made my father feel less like he was in an institution.

Clean, doesn't smell like a nursing home, caring nurses, nice staff.