Brookdale Western Hills

I had friends at Brookdale Western Hills, and they were very satisfied with it. You can add assistance as needed. If you decide you need to have somebody take care of your medications for you, you can add that to the bill. They had a TV room, a courtyard facility, and exercise machines. It's a small place, and it's one story.

My parents liked that Brookdale Western Hills was small. The staff was very good and very cordial. The apartment we looked at had a small living area and a separate bedroom, a bath, and a walk-in closet. They had a dining room, common areas and sitting areas, a courtyard where they had flowers, a gazebo for barbecue, a hairstylist comes in, and they had a laundry facility. The food was very good, and my parents liked it a lot. The facility was in a square, but it's easy to maneuver, and there weren't any stairs.

The staff at Brookdale Western Hills was very nice. Everything was fine, but it didn't smell fresh and clean. It was lunchtime and there were people in the dining area, which was very close to the front door. It was cheerful and had good colors in it. They had a salon, a craft room, and a library.

I liked Brookdale Western Hills, but they changed hands a lot, and my ex-husband was asked to leave because of his behavioral issues due to his head injury. The food was great, and they had an activities director. If you’re only there for assisted living and don't have other health issues, it's a good place, but if you have dementia or brain injury, they don't know how to take care of behavioral issues. They have a day room with TVs all over the place and an outdoor court, but no pool. It's a locked facility, but they have areas where you could out. You're able to have pets, and they do your washing and help clean your room. We got into an altercation, and I took my ex-husband for a psychological evaluation as they asked me to, but they didn't accept him back and I had no place to put him. I had to go and move the stuff out of his room.

My mother is in Brookdale Western Hills (Formerly Sterling House of Temple). I like their size, which is very small. I found the staff to be helpful. They've got bingo, they take them out, they do chair exercises, they bring people in to give them an opportunity to have music and they take them to Wal-Mart. The staff members that work round-the-clock have been absolutely kind and gentle with my mother. I would give the caretakers a 5. They just should do better as far as keeping the bathrooms a little bit cleaner, but the attitude of the staff has been really positive.

One of the places that I visited that I really liked was Brookdale. The staff seemed to be on top of everything. It was a little bit more expensive, but I thought if my mother would have been there, she would be in better health. The residents said, "Please bring your mother." "Come join us." We only walked in, and I thought they were playing dominoes or bingo, but they were like, "Just please come in." When we were doing the visit, they were doing a staff meeting, and we saw all of the staff. It was a very light-hearted, happy atmosphere. I was very impressed with the director who was giving us the tour. She had talked about how sometimes she comes in the middle of the night or like 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning to make sure she knew what was going on overnight so as not to depend on someone else's opinion. It was very clean. It smelled fresh, and that was very impressive. The rooms were nice. They were in a nice size. Thinking back, if she had gone there, we would have been happier. They seemed to be 100 percent on safety. They were very conscious of their safety. They were very conscious to speaking to everyone that was there. When we were there, whether it was the residents, the staff or the director, they were all about stopping and speaking to you. They all seemed to want to meet us. They all wanted to know about my mom, when we were going to bring her there. Just the overall friendliness was really good.

The décor was very nice. There was a warm atmosphere. They had nice staff who were very polite, and very helpful. It was the staff that kind of sold me on it. I was impressed with Brookdale Western Hills (Formerly Sterling House of Temple). It pretty much fit my needs.

Sterling House was a really nice place. It was much smaller than the other facility my mother was at. They had all the amenities that you might want. The food was good. The rooms and apartments were nice. The staff was nice, and they had a really nice director at the time of my visit. They were good and really helpful. They had bible classes. They also had a library with a big screen TV, and they take the residents to the mall once a week.