Villas at Killearn Lakes

Susan

I toured the Villas at Killearn Lakes. It was wonderful, and that's where I would want to be if I needed to be there. The size of the room is excellent. The villas are individual buildings, and I think each building has eight bedrooms with a private bath. Then, there's a very large area, and in that large area, it's like a big home. The kitchen is right there, and all the food is prepared right in front of the residents. It's just eight people in a building. They look like houses, and it's fantastic. It's the only one I've ever seen like that. The kitchen is spotless. It's excellent. The staff who gave the tour was very thorough. She answered all questions and knew exactly what was going on. They had beautiful gardens, and each building had its hair salon, a good-sized library, books, puzzles, and games.

Trish

My mom has moved into Villas at Killearn Lakes. This one was highly recommended by friends of mine. It has small villas with only 12 residents in it, and I like the much smaller environment for her. They have an entryway, a large bedroom, and a large handicapped-accessible bathroom. They open onto the main area of the villa where the dining and living is. The food is excellent. It's all homemade right in front of them. The staff are all very attentive to the elders. They're very efficient and hardworking. I am impressed that not a single one of them walks around with a cell phone. There are a lot of musical activities, arts and crafts, and pet therapy services.

Brian Fienemann

The Villas at Killearn Lakes gave mom the safe home she needed after dad passed. We tried other facilities but they were not the place for her or us. The entire team at the Villas treated mom with love and respect every day for almost three years. We always felt like family to them and they treated our mother with such care and dignity. We cannot say enough good things about our experience with Pete, Bobbi and the entire Villas family, they have our eternal gratitude for taking such great care of mom while in their care - thank you! Brian Fienemann

MB Sharp

While a nice, community style assisted living facility with friendly staff and good sized rooms, I do not recommend this as a memory care facility. The staff is not equipped nor properly trained to take care of memory care residents. Due to this, the facility recently told my family that they can no longer take care of my father with progressive dementia. We have continually worked with the facility as his disease has progressed over the past few years, we have multiple family members visit regularly and provide a full time (8-12 hours per day) care taker to sit specifically with my father at our own expense at the request of the facility. Regardless of all of this, they gave us 45 days to find an alternative facility where we will have to uproot my father and help him transition to a new place with new people. Anyone who has ever worked with or loved someone in need of memory care understands how very difficult and painful this is for the patient as well as the family. Those with memory loss best thrive in stable environments and this facility is taking that away due to their lack of staff, training and expertise to provide appropriate memory care services. Therefore, I do not recommend this facility if your loved one currently needs or may eventually need memory care. When you most need their help and guidance, in the later, difficult stages of dementia, they may force you to leave, uprooting the only home and stability your family member currently knows and can remember.

Ralph

My mother is in the Villas at Killearn Lakes. There are six individual villas, and in each villa there are 12 residents. Each villa has two caregivers. All the meals are eaten in the villas assigned to the person, and they have activities throughout the day, roughly from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. They have a marketing person or financial person. They probably have three RNs, they have a senior activities person, another activity person, they have a lead caregiver in each villa, and they have one other caregiver. They have two caregivers that are in each villa from roughly 6:00 a.m. to probably 8:00 p.m., and then probably 11:00 p.m., and then they have only one caregiver from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.They usually have at least one music activity every day. They have two card games activities every day, at least one craft, and one other miscellaneous kind of thing.

Gay Webster-Sachs

As a boomer, I am blessed to be among the very fortunate to still have a parent living. My 93-year-old Mom, Sandra, is a sweet, loving, soft-spoken person whose long life has changed and downshifted during the past 10 years as her physical and other abilities have declined. Recently, I had to make one of the most difficult and emotional decisions in my life – about where to place my mother for what is likely the last phase of her life. Moving mom from independent living with our family to an assisted living facility in Tallahassee seemed the right path – but finding the right facility was more than challenging. After visits to multiple established facilities, I finally found what hopefully seemed to be the perfect place to meet all of her needs and preferences, without feeling institutional. We discovered The Villas at Killearn Lakes, a wonderful, brand new venue and upbeat new paradigm model for Tallahassee that feels more like a cozy family home than a large nursing or assisted living home. Within the first week, Sandra (my Mom) surprised us by readily adjusting to this new environment. She also has become more social, happy, relaxed, content, and motivated to enjoy this part of her life. While mom is not a prima donna, she wanted and deserved a place that made her feel like an individual rather than just a census number. This is it! At the heart of that terrific truth of The Villas is the home-like feeling of the facilities – six brand new large single-story homes, each designed to be capable of caring for 12 elder residents in large, comfortable bedrooms, each with their own easy-to-use bathrooms. The common area in each home is a comfortable, truly ‘great room’ for meals, socializing, watching TV together and daily bonding of new friendships being formed. The kindness and compassion of the caring staff here is unsurpassed. The quality and specialized attention given to each individual resident is crafted to their specific needs and desires. Seeing and hearing my mom’s daily joy has made this transition an easy one for her – and for our family. I am so grateful to have found this new home for my mother – a state-of-the-art facility with such a consistently professional quality of care. Once we got mom settled, the Villas people perked up her view by setting up a special trellis and plants outside her bedroom window – and allowed us to set up a bird feeder so she can delightedly watch a variety of wild birds happily feeding and gratefully chirping just for her, every day. Shortly after we moved mom to The Villas at Killearn Lakes, strict visiting restrictions were put in place as part of the national effort to protect very vulnerable elders from exposure to the growing national threat of the coronavirus. I worried that being shut off from visits to her would worry my mom and make her feel insecure. I was wrong – because the staff and other residents at the Villas have become her new daily family of friends. They support each other emotionally and in every other meaningful way. It’s not uncommon these days for my mom to shortcut my phone calls with her because she is with new elder friends or is anxious to go to her next meal or meeting with them. Neither of us expected she could find a new support network this late in her life – but thank God, and the Villas, she has done just that. Mom is so happy and feels security, kindness, and supportive attention from the compassionate staff. I highly recommend the Villas to anyone facing this difficult and emotional decision about a beloved elder relative or friend. In heartfelt gratitude, thank you to the professional staff of Villas of Killearn Lakes – and to the visionary owners of the facility who wisely brought this wonderful, bold new model to our community. Bring your parent here -- to meet Sandra and make other new friends, too. Look them up! In gratitude, Gay Webster-Sachs

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