Memory Care Communities in Manchester, IA

"I like everything about Accura HealthCare of Cascade. Everybody has been so helpful in answering questions. Mom has 12 children and we're all spread out, and they are so open that anybody can call anytime to get information about her. We've all been invited over to have a sit-down meeting once a month so that they could give updates in the care of mom. So, it's just been nice. The staff is knowledgeable and caring. They are kind people helping us out with her and she's talked to us on the phone several times. They are more than happy to talk to us when we call or go by. They answer questions and do anything that they thought mom needed. They have activities like bowling and games, and they just had a big Cinco de Mayo party. Somebody also brought May baskets to all the rooms for May day. So, they do a lot of things and they're going above and beyond."

"Dad is in River Bend Retirement Community. When you went into the memory unit itself, each of the individual rooms, they put different siding on them to make it look like they're a different house. Everyone's house looks different from the outside, or their room looks different from the outside. The common area in the middle had 30 foot ceilings in them. They were painted blue and white to look like clouds. So, the whole place was just open and bright. They had their different seating area. There was a kind of stone fireplace that kind of went up through the middle. And I'm saying fireplace loosely because I can't believe they'd actually have a fireplace on that, in the memory unit part thing, it's just the looks of it. So it just made it look homey. They had couches and stuff sitting around that area. They had a different section where they could go into, in my view, a big walk-in closet with the couch in there. And there were pictures of the animals on the walls and stuff like that. And they said they use that when somebody is getting agitated or something. As far as one lady, for example at 3:00, she always had to worry about getting her kids on the bus. And so then they'd take her in there and then they'd distract her by talking about the animals. And like, "I lived on a farm. Did you live on a farm? Did you have any pets," that type of thing, and that seemed to get the lady past that. And just very helpful, very knowledgeable."

"Arlington Place of Oelwein had a very nice setup. It's roomier than the other place, but their hallways were shorter. It seemed more spacious yet more compact. It's not so spread out. Their studio apartments were nice. There was a little kitchenette, no stove or anything, but they had a refrigerator, microwave, and countertop. The staff was very nice and very welcoming. You can have a hairstylist come in whenever. They have their own salon there and physical therapy onsite. What I liked about it is there's a walking trail right out the front door pretty much, and if I wanted to go pick Mom up and take her for a walk, they had a nice paved trail to go on."