The Harmony Collection at Roanoke – Memory Care

My mother moved into The Harmony Collection at Roanoke - Memory Care. She seems to hate it, but that's just her, because we're happy so far. The staff seems very patient there, but with the lockdown, we haven't had a whole lot of interaction with the staff other than my sister who takes the phone call. Mom seems to like the food. They have some activities. I know she's done some crafts, and they have like a garden club. They seem to be knowledgeable about Alzheimer's, and so far she's a hard one, but they're handling her.

My in-laws are residents of the memory care and independent living of Pheasant Ridge Memory Center. The memory care so far seems excellent. It's a beautiful community and they're seemed to be staffed probably better than most of the places we've looked at. The one thing that stood out was that they have a private bathroom there. The apartment is a really nice-sized room and a big bathroom with a shower and chair. The other places we've looked at, you have to go out of your room in order to use the shower, and the rooms were small. The one here is just a very nice room. It's a big place, but there's a lot of small areas and they take the residents in smaller groups to work together. So you don't have to sit in a big area, you can find a little quiet space and they have all kinds of little spaces. There's a big town center in the middle so you really feel like you're in a little town. They have a movie theater, they have a store. And so the residents can look around the store and take stuff back to their rooms, usually old things, like old clothes, pocket books, games and things like that. They do a happy hour every Thursday evening in the store with alcohol-free beverages. They have lots of activities throughout the day. The physical therapy team helps with getting the residents seated for their meals. And they do their nails and just a lot of interaction with them. So it's also like therapy but they're doing fun things while getting their therapy. There's an art room, library, lots of little stations, there's a baby station, station for the men like a man cave, and there's a kitchen and laundry area. It's a real beautiful community with high ceilings and lots of light. They have two dining rooms with a kitchen down the middle, so they can serve on both sides. And the CNAs that sat them down helps them as needed in gauging how much they're eating. We've been very pleased so far. The way they keep their residents active and in different areas, not just corralling them and sitting them down like a baby sitter in front of the TV, I really like that. I think it's very expensive, but they're providing a lot.