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[quote=Anonymous]I searched a lot of places for my FIL around Christmas because he needs assisted living (84, Walker, can’t live independently, needs meals), and initially I was turned off in places where I saw a lot of people sitting around in wheelchairs, assuming it was a representative sample of the residents.  He’s physically frail but cognitively strong.

What I realized was that my first impressions did not always reflect all the more vibrant people…because they had already gotten up and walked to their rooms!  Or were busy with visitors or doing other things.

Money is TIGHT for him, living on a federal pension, but we found a really nice place for him at Spring Hills Mount Vernon.  It is NOT at all fancy…no lovely grounds, no pool, no extensive workout room, but he doesn’t need that stuff; he’d never use it anyway.  The staff is great and food is really good - he’s eaten better in a month than he has in years.    The base rental price for an efficiency apartment (which actually has separate living and bedroom areas and a small kitchenette, which was bigger than I expected) was $3800.  That includes laundry, weekly housekeeping, 3 meals (a great restaurant style menu), and rides to medical appointments and daily activities. He pays for one level of care higher than the base for now since he was just discharged from the hospital and needed more care at first while he builds up strength but those levels are clear and max out at $3000 above the base.

Fall risk was our biggest worry and he did actually fall last week…not a trip and fall that we worried about but he bent over to pick something up (even though he could have used a grabber thing we bought him, argh) and got dizzy and fell and couldn’t get himself up.  He has an emergency call button around his neck that he used.  If it had happened when he was in his apartment, we wouldn’t have known until the next day when his sister would have called for her daily morning call and gotten no answer and she would have called DH at work and he would have had to go.  So I feel like it’s already paid for itself.

Socially, he has found two other federal retired men his age that he now plays cards with, which is amazing.  They’re none of them going out jogging or anything, but two use walkers and one a wheelchair to go down for meals together.  I think our initial turnoff at seeing all the wheelchairs was unwarranted.

Anyway, that’s my long winded way of saying after a LOT of work we did find a good fit and that those first impressions that may look like it’s a bunch of nursing-home level patients might not reflect the true population because the more active and mobile people are not sitting around a common room at any given time.  And if you don’t need all the bells and whistles like a sauna or pool or pickleball courts or walking trails, but you do need a nice space, levels of care that aren’t sprung on you like a bait and switch, really great staff, and an affordable base rent, we are really pleased with Spring Hills  Mount Vernon so far.  [/quote]

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