Avamere at St. Helens

Never put a family member in the memory care here. Bed sores, multiple trips to the ER while in Avamere's care. Hired high school kids with no training to care for people there. Thank Goodness this nightmare is over. They promise a reasonable rate, and the start tacking on extras like actually caring for the person.

Avamere at St. Helens is nice. From what I hear from my mom, it's good. The staff is extremely helpful and friendly. They have a daily schedule posted in the elevator for the residents so they know what’s going on that day. The food is excellent. The dining area is nice and has double doors out into a patio that's gorgeous and beautiful. They have a full kitchen up on one of the floors that the residents can use if they want a Thanksgiving dinner and have family over. There are alcoves on all floors with game tables, so there is stuff all around the facility that they can use. They use the dining room for a lot of their activities. They include the residents in the city activities which was pretty cool.

While the main area of this community was very nice and it seems the apartments for indipendent and assisted living are nice, their memory care unit has much to be desired. The rooms are small dark and not that good. The main cafeteria area is NOT NICE. No one was smiling and it looked like an old forgoten person warehouse. They should send someone over to Regency Park and check out what they are doing there for memory care clients. Wouldn[t put my dog in this place for memory care. The staff did seem very nice.They had some activities. They were setting up to back cookies the day I was there. REALLY don't know how many of the men would be interested in that. The tables were bleak and the dining area low ceiling and dark. Rooms dark and small. Looke old and really needed updating. Why can't memory care people have nice big windows and a view?

I visited the memory care unit of Avamere at St Helens. The community is at a convenient location because it's close to downtown. The staff seems to be very caring and capable. Everything is clean, and the residents seem to be in good spirits. The rooms were large with big bathrooms, dressers, and nice windows that look out over the garden. They have an activity board that states what the activities are for the day.

My impression of Avamere is that it's not very stable nor cheap here, and I don’t get the care that I pay for quite often. This morning, I had them bring all of my pills I take at lunch, too, and they weren’t separated properly. I have trouble getting medical service and the services that I pay for. They’re supposed to empty my garbage cans twice a day and they haven’t been emptied at all today. We had an administrator who was the son of the owner for a year, and it was a year of Hell because he wasn’t worth anything. Now, we have a new one and I think there is hope that things may improve and be better. We have a large TV room and there’s exercise four or five days a week for an hour. I have a one-bedroom on the first floor, and I have a little patio with a door, a bird feeder out there, and a good view of the whole garden area, so I probably have one of the best rooms in the building. I think the person who is in charge of the workers here is not a very good boss. I don’t think she has a strong enough personality to be in the job she’s in. We do have some really good people working here as well as people who have been promoted to jobs with more authority who shouldn’t have been because they weren’t the proper choice. We have a very good director, though. I think we’re scheduled this month to go to four, maybe more, places to eat. We’re going to the Tulip Town in Woodland to see all the pretty tulips, and we’re also going to the Lilac Farm this month. The food is not to my liking, but we have a food forum once a month, and I say the same thing every time about wanting less pre-fab food, less grease, and less sugar. There’s not a person here that would not benefit from that being changed. It needs a little help right now, but I understand the new administrator is interested in doing that. I need to see more things happening, and I have high hopes that some of the things will get done. I get along beautifully with the residents.

We visited Avamere at St. Helens. They have retirement cottages that we were interested in. It was a very nice facility, and seeing the dining room, it was all very nice. We like it, but it didn't seem to have a good place for our dogs. They did have a nice two-bedroom roomy little cottage. The staff seemed very nice. They showed us around and answered any questions that we had. We were told that they have a bus that takes you places, and they have games and different activities that go on. Security seemed alright to us. They did have a little bit more broad diet. I mean, they give you some choices besides what they were serving, so that was nice too.