Independent Living Communities in Brainerd, MN

"I had an in-person tour of Northern Lakes. The entrance and the sitting room area are big. The dining area, community room, mailboxes, gym, and library are all very good. The apartments are very nice. The staff members are very friendly and answer all our questions. The view to the woods and the Paul Bunyan Trail impresses us the most. Some of the apartments that are not facing the Paul Bunyan Trail are very noisy because of rail rides."

"The staff at the Good Samaritan Village in Brainerd Minnesota is very welcoming and kind. They have been a great help for my father and my family as we moved him to the facility. The setting is very nice with a courtyard and individual rooms for all of the residents. The residents have access to the courtyard for family events and dinner is served in a familial setting. The formal areas feel more like a home than a care facility, and all of the other residents are supportive and helpful. There are several other related care facilities on the Good Samaritan campus and this offers opportunities for advanced care for later life stages. The medical personnel that work on campus are competent and well respected. Their concern seems to truly be for the residents. All in all, I would definitely recommend this assisted living location. I have been pleased with the results and all of the great resources. My family and I were new to this type of arrangement, but the staff at the Good Samaritan Village were helpful and made the entire process seem easy. "

"Good Samaritan Society-Woodland seems like a nice setting. There are lots of staff, and they all seem to care. My mom has a nice room that looks out to the trees in the yard. There's also a park across the street, where she can look out and see people walking. They have different activities every day. They take her down there, and she sometimes participates."

"Heartwood is a fabulous facility. Right now, my father is in independent living. Before my mom went into a memory care unit, they were in assisted living. I am happy with all of the service we've gotten there. It's a wonderful, comfortable, and very classy-looking place. The people are friendly. I would highly recommend it. He is involved in a men's Bible study and goes down and has dinner every evening with a community of people. He sits with various different people and really enjoys that. They have monthly birthday parties with special music that he loves, and have movie nights. Because he's in independent living, he's not involved in a lot of the activities because he's out and about. He has a car and drives. They have a wonderful exercise gym that he takes advantage of and has friends that he goes out and walks the hallways with to get exercise. One of the things he really likes is that he is a hall monitor. They have these tags that they put out in their doorway at 9:00 in the evening and 9:00 in the morning and one of them volunteers to walk up and down and make sure that everybody had put out their little tag and that everybody's OK. He likes being able to do that and help out. "

"I only visited Golden Horizons of Crosslake. It's close to home and I'm satisfied with it. They have bingo, they do exercises with the residents every day, they have a social hour with entertainment, and the meals are satisfactory. I haven't found any problems with it. I think the care is pretty good. They're understaffed a little bit. I they could use more employees because sometimes the residents have to wait a little while before their call buttons are answered. My husband's room is a studio type apartment with a bedroom and living room together, a separate little kitchen, and a separate bathroom."

"My mother-in-law was at Whitefish at the Lakes. Everything was really good there. It was very nice and clean. It was very professional. The staff was awesome. My mother-in-law was on comfort care, so hospice was involved a little bit too, but the whole facility was just nice. The food was good, and the care was good. The only thing that we had trouble with was we lost some laundry. My mother-in-law lost a few items. They have a salon, entertainment, and a nice room for relaxation. It had a lot of things. They had whirlpools. So from what we could see, it was very nice."