Heathwood Assisted Living & Memory Care at Williamsville

Judy

My parents have moved into Heathwood Assisted Living & Memory Care at Williamsville. They are enjoying it. One of the main reasons I chose them is because they do accept Medicare when private funds are not available anymore. The other reason was when I talked to other people, they had good reviews from other people that I knew that have had family members stay there. They were very friendly. The manager was very accommodating and friendly. We had a tour and there were lots of activities. My parents were in a condo by themselves, and they weren't socializing. But once they get there, every morning, my mom and my dad, both of them go to exercises they have for them. They have religious services or at least prayer groups. They have bingo, and little field trips for them once or twice a month. They take them out to go places either for lunch or a field trip to go look in someplace or tour some facility. They also have movies and a popcorn machine there, a nice movie theater with movie seats. They also have crafts every Monday and Wednesday. They have card groups that they play with. They even have these little miniature ponies that they brought in. For the residents that couldn't make it outside, they brought the ponies inside to their rooms. There’s live music every Friday, they have like a trio or a duo come in or maybe even a single person, they sing and play instruments. They're always active, and always doing something. They have a dining room, and I was told that during Covid, they used to have like an open dining, but the residents prefer to have their own seating at their own table. Each time when they go over, they get the same table. So, they have a certain time they have to go to their breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That's a huge thing for my parents, they love the food. If you don't like something, you can order something that you want. They always get a snack, and they have snacks at night. I had a good rapport with the social workers and the care workers there. They have employees who have been there for 25 years, 15 years, and 10 years. Everyone was very friendly, I enjoyed it. I feel like it's a very good placement for my parents and they were very happy with it. There's a choice of room, what my parents have is called a large private room, so they have one room with a bathroom. They do have apartments and there are a variety of rates. It's very nice and large, but they took that room instead of an apartment because the apartment is divided. Even though it does have like a little kitchenette in it and a little refrigerator. They're pretty well set. You can either take your furniture with you or they can provide pieces for you. But my parents took their bedroom set into the king-size bed, that's why we took that room. For Thanksgiving, they had them into smaller groups instead of one large dining room. They only had 12 people at their table. My father said it felt like a family eating a Thanksgiving dinner. So, they were very happy. My parents’ room is very convenient to activity rooms and very convenient to the dining room, which was important. My dad struggles to walk. I would say it's average-priced. It's all very clean, and I can't find any fault. It's just that there are other facilities that are more updated.

Laura

Heathwood Assisted Living & Memory Care at Williamsville was fantastic. They're an all-inclusive facility. If you run out of money, Medicaid will take over. They have lots of activities and they were trying to get the people engaged to keep their minds going. They had some lovely outside spaces and during the summer, they have a musician that comes in on Fridays and plays outdoors so the people can come, sit, and listen to that. It was very nice. The rooms were lovely. Even the studio had a fairly spacious place. Everything was kept very clean and neat. The woman who did the tour knows everyone there and they all love her. She's a very caring woman. They have a salon, a gym area, and a nice sit-down dining area. When I was there, it was in the afternoon and they had three different areas where they had people doing activities of different kinds. One was doing stuff that worked on your mind, another was doing some exercises. They had quite several people engage in these activities. So, it's my first choice right now.

Karen

All the staff members at Heathwood Assisted Living & Memory Care at Williamsville are super friendly and very responsive to phone calls. Everyone's super nice, super helpful, and they're working on acclimating my mom to the new facility. She's in a private room that's pretty large. It's got a separate area for her bed and then on the other side is kind of like the living space area. Then there's a bathroom within the room. The shower is shared so she has to go to this shower area two doors down, but it's nice. They also supplied whatever furniture she needed. She has a single bed, a nice credenza, a dresser, and a nightstand. She has gone to bingo and different entertainment. They had to do rosary and they had pretzels and drinks for Pretzel National Pretzel Day where the residents all went (they called it "Pretzel Social"). Then she goes to her own meals in which she gets to pick different food. If she wants something different for breakfast or any other meal, she can choose that rather than what they're offering that day.

Phillip

I toured Heathwood Assisted Living & Memory Care at Williamsville. I was impressed. My general impression is that it's a very typical and very nice residential assisted living/memory care facility. It was open. They were friendly. I felt comfortable there. My reluctance was, in spite of what they shared about the balance of gender, I didn't see many or any men. I know in the demographic of assisted living, you're going to have a lot of older women, but I didn't have a sense my brother was going to be quite as comfortable because it felt like it was very, very skewed towards older women. It's very nice, it's very traditional and it's very pleasant. I walked in on a very rainy day, and somebody was playing a little grand piano in the activity room, and the people seemed happy. The rooms looked very nice, and they were clean, but it was a little bit more expensive than the one my brother was going to now. It's very much what you would expect. The grounds were beautiful. It was absolutely a gorgeous place to go outside. There were walking paths and places to sit. So that was impressive. The staff was very down-to-earth and very friendly. He contacted me a couple of weeks after I had visited, which I thought was rather strange. It was kind of a long period of time to kind of get back to me. He made it sound like they had availability and yet it didn't sound like he was urgently looking to fill it and yet when he contacted me, he seemed to be. I had told him we were looking for places within 30 days but two weeks went by before he picked up the phone and said, 'Hey, how are you doing?'

cmsmith1294

If you have a loved one dealing with Alzheimer's, dementia, or any other memory care issue DO NOT PUT THEM IN THIS FACILITY! Heathwood advertises as a memory care facility but are NOT specialized and DO NOT have the resources to care for your family member; their words, not mine. If your loved one is even remotely active and "doesn't listen to commands" they will not be welcomed in this "memory care assisted living facility". If I could give 0 stars, I would. To top it all off they currently have no activities director so all they offer is tv, no other brain stimulating activities.

Nancy

My mother-in-law moved into Heathwood Assisted Living and Memory Care in Williamsville. We liked the place, it was our number two choice, but it was availability. She's happy there. She's only been there a month, but we don't have any complaints. Communication is fine so far. We haven't had any issues with the staff. Their admissions people are excellent, and very informative. My mother-in-law says the food is good. It appears to be very clean. She has attended one or two things. I think some of it is timing. She doesn't get out of her meal in time to go to some of the activities. So, she has tried one or two. I don't think that's as important to her as feeling safe and secure. I would encourage anybody to check it out.