Brookdale Melbourne

Mom is interested in Brookdale Melbourne. She likes where it is located because it’s much more convenient for me to visit her and for her to get to her doctors; plus they have a really nice set up, nice rooms, and a nice eating area. They offer a lot of activities, do laundry, have a beauty salon, and offer church services on Sunday. I know they have bingo and they have arts and crafts, too. The food looked good.

The Brookdale administrator we spoke to was very nice. The rooms were studios. It just was too small for what my aunt would want. I didn't feel that there were really enough lounge areas for people to go to, but it seemed like the people who were there were happy. But it's hard to tell in one visit. The people that we saw in the halls seem to enjoy it and happy they were there, and the administrators were very nice. But that's just a general impression.

Brookdale Melbourne was a nice place. They seemed to be very clean and well managed. They were very caring and seemed to have adequate staffing.

I thought Brookdale was an excellent facility. The staff was very informative. The rooms were clean, small, and my dad thought it was livable.

This community is just the right size, the residents who live here are all very well taken care of and happy. The activities that they have are always fun and on Friday's we can enjoy happy hour with them with live entertainment, snacks and drinks. I'm pleased overall with everything and the associates are very friendly and truly care about the residents, you start to feel like family after s little bit of time.

The staff was tremendously helpful. We had an opportunity to walk to the entire facility and not that just the sales and marketing tips but also the chance to sample the food and to meet the chef. We talked to multiple of residents, which to me is a big selling point. They provided feedback and comments that we feel very comfortable with. Brookdale Melbourne seems like a very energetic elderly community, people were out of their rooms, interacting with each other, and they seemed to have a wide variety of activities offered throughout the day. It was enough to convince me that this is the place I think my mom would be comfortable, happy, and safe.

Our experience with Brookdale Melbourne (Formerly Emeritus at Melbourne) was OK, but they did not have enough staff at the time. It could've been better and more organized. There were small rooms. It was not a big place. The dining room was in good condition, very nice quality, good enough. I was impressed most with the price. They answered all our questions, but they should have better quality staff.

I pulled a family member out of this awful place. It used to be a nice place but lack of staff has made it ho down hill. The stench is terrible. Residents always complaining about the staff in not caring.

We picked Brookdale Melbourne because of cost. It is the least expensive and the one I can afford. The second reason would be its relative close proximity to where I live. I'm sure they mentioned some of the activities to me. One of the things they do offer is to take some of the residents on bus tours to Wal-Mart. They basically take them out to shopping. I'm not aware of all the different things they do, and there's more to that obviously. My mother does not participate a whole lot because she is just kind of miserable. I tried to get her to go, but she is not very sociable at her age. They offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but it is very limited on what they offer in terms of snacks. In fact, that is one of the complaints my mother has about it. They send her to the machine to get snacks, and they don't really do much beyond breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It is OK; I still have her there, and I'm not pulling her out or anything. It is hospitable and reasonable. Being someone who works in the long term care industry, I've seen a lot of good and a lot of bad in these homes. Brookdale is not the most pristine, and it is not the cleanest, but it is OK. I would say it is in the middle of the road. What sold me on it was that the price was right, and it was close enough for me to be able to get there quickly if need be. They did give me a copy of the contract, and that was fine, but they ended up charging me for something I never agreed to. They also have a thing they call a community fee, which I'm not even sure what that pays for exactly. The representative told me that I can pay in installments, but then suddenly that wasn't available, so they will charge me more. I'm still working on that. Another thing they offered me when I brought my mother in was that there'll be someone to show her around. That didn't happen, and I ended up being the one to take her around and showing her the place. I'm OK, and it does the job, but I'm not ecstatic about it.

Brookdale Melbourne was very homey, and the people in it were very friendly and outgoing. It was very clean. They seemed very caring. My father was very happy with the food. They had a very nice garden area. It was very cheerful and upbeat. The residents there seemed very happy.

Brookdale Melbourne was nice, and the rooms were much bigger, but not as up-to-date. It was much older, but very well-cleaned and kept up nicely. My mom thought that the patients were happy there. When we got there, there was a happy hour going on, they had this little band there, they were all singing, and everybody just looked so happy. Even when we walked around, all the patients looked nice, and they all looked happy. We liked this one too. And the rooms were huge; they were bigger and more like a little hotel. They had enough room where you could put a bed, a dresser, a little couch, and a little entail, so you had a little sitting area. But the bathrooms were not as nice as the other place because you had to step up to them. It wasn't as nice as the first place, but it was pleasant. The rooms were huge, and you could get different sizes. This was another thing that was pretty cool. If they had it available, you could get two rooms. They'd take the wall down, and you could have two rooms, so you could have a really big space if you wanted, and they had people that did that. I know they do baking, and they have a lot of different stuff. They have movies, they take them to the movies and to the mall, and they have their own little bus that they transport people, so they had some nice stuff to offer too. They could update the facility. The biggest thing to me was the bathroom. Someone getting under the shower that needs help wouldn't be good there. The other thing that kind of scared me a little bit about this place was they were right on the highway whereas the other place had at least an acre of land before you got there. But what was cool about this place too was they allow you to bring your animal. They can't be huge, and there is a requirement, but there were people there with a cat and people with a dog. So as long as you can walk the dog or take care of your animal, they are allowed to stay.

It just had a very foul odor, and my mother didn't like it. The people were nice to me, but I noticed one thing right off. The people who were walking down the hall -- the residents -- none of them turned to me and said "Hello." None of them were smiling. The assisted living is not an apartment; it is a very small room. One of the things I noticed was they were all very dark. Everything was dark. I said, "No way. This is an example of what she doesn't like." I took her there just to show her, and she said, "Oh, I don't want this place." I looked at the dining area, and it seemed cramped. They need to redo their lighting to make it more brightly lit because the hallways were just dim. My mom noticed the stench, and I noticed the look. Even the room that they showed me -- even though it had furniture and a lamp in it -- just wasn't well-lit.

I liked it because it was small. They didn't have a large amount of people. I liked that it was only on one floor or one level. Everything was good. The dining area was very nice.

The food was not good here. The supervision was not good as well. My mom was lying in the bathroom for a good portion of the night. She has Alzheimer's, and she ended up walking around naked one day in the dining room. When dad was there, he just came out of the hospital. Because he kept trying to go home one night, they just put him in a hallway and wouldn't let him out. Nobody ever told me; dad just told me later. The rooms were fine. He had a nice bedroom with a sitting room. My mom went to all the exercise classes. If you couldn't find her, she would be in the exercise room. The diet, the supervision, and the communication needed to be improved. That's why we never went back.

I was very impressed. They staff was very helpful and answered all my questions. The rooms were rather small. They had individual dining rooms for the different wings of the place. They had games, and they took the residents out to different places.

I went with my husband for a visit and the facility is very, very nice. The rooms are a little bit smaller, but overall the facility is nice and the residents are pretty friendly. The staff are also nice. I like the large dining room and it's a restaurant-style looking and I know that would make my mom-in-law happier. The staff who toured me around discussed with me the different activities they have and it sounds like they had a lot of things going on. I feel like they have activities that would make her happy too.

This was the first facility I visited and they were very good. It's a very nice facility. I like the staff, I like the environment. I saw the dining area. I saw people eating and it's very, very nice. The grounds were beautiful. They also have a memory care program. With regards to the activities, I know they have outings.