Stellar Senior Living

Didn’t care for it. Old. Cold. Did not look at independent living when we were there.

The facility overall is beautiful & well kept. There are ample activities for those who want to be involved. The food is very good for this type of facility, good variety, & the 12 hr open dining and snacks allows a lot of liberty. Overall a good choice for independent living - more of a challenge when you have to move into assisted care. The medical director (RN) controls the care level assignments & it is rather unclear as to how they decide what price you should be charged - 1 day it's $400 then next day its over $1200. The caregivers (aids) seem to be kind & helpful, but the facility is constantly short staffed, so they are over worked & hurried/stressed. The nursing staff who handle things like medications can be rude/ condescending to the patients instead of respecting their dignity. Communication can be an issue. It has been hard to get an actual appointment when I need to discuss my loved one's care - just have to catch the director on the fly - which makes it hard to address concerns in full and get on the same page. If I had it to do over, I would probably had placed my loved one elsewhere, but since elders can be traumatized by moves, we are just trying to make this work (for now anyway).

Had my 89 year old Mother there for a year. Left after 1 year due to the tremendous increase in care and costs. She is now in [Removed]. Much better place, $1,000 less per month, larger staff, more amenities, etc, etc. If you Must locate your family member in Kyle then Orchard Park is ok. They Do Try their best with what they are given, and I wish them luck.

I toured The Oaks while looking for a new place for my loved one and I to move. I thought that the community was nice, but for only being two years old, it already seemed well worn. I also didn't feel that they offered as many amenities as some other places we had looked.

When we toured this community for my mom it was nice and clean. The person doing the tour was helpful and answered all my questions. It was just really to far away from me. So we chose something closer.

My cousin has been here since the middle of June and at first I was very pleased, but it hasn’t been great since. We’ve been having trouble with a lot of miscommunication and have even had to hire our own caregiver that will be going in every once in a while to make sure the staff are doing the things they need to. They don’t have enough people working there and something has happened within the last month that leads me to believe there’s been a high turnover rate. The facility lost my cousin’s burial instructions and I don’t think the office is as efficient as it could be. My cousin is in the memory care unit and is not all there and it feels like the community is not giving us the whole story on what’s going on with her care. They do keep things pretty clean, though, and that’s something I like. Another positive is that it’s the closest community to my cousin’s son’s home so he’s able to visit her whenever he likes.

Too big. My mother would be overwhelmed. [Removed] offered her a room very near the receptionist and dining room, but the vastly changing sea of new faces would overwhelm her here.

I write this review after having just moved a parent to another facility. I'll be honest, my first impression of Thunderbird was very positive. We interacted with both [names removed] and they were enthusiastic and pleasant. We toured the facility and found it modern and clean. We were very excited that we had found a new home for Dad, where he could be safe. We sat and filled out paperwork and signed numerous initials and signatures. Unfortunately, we did not read every page verbatim. Our mistake. We had no idea that if someone is unhappy or wishes to leave, that they are committed to paying for 60 days after written notice. Another costly $4000+ mistake on our part. Our Dad who is usually very outgoing found cliques to be much a part of life at Thunderbird. People sat at the same table with the same people every day in the dining room and didn't very much welcome newcomers. Our Dad often skipped meals rather than sit alone. He spent most of his time in his apartment watching Blue Blood instead of trying to force his way into a group. In August, Dad went to visit his daughter in Texas for a couple of weeks and then came to Maine for a month. He was told that he would be reimbursed for meals if gone for 30 or more days. When I went to the finance person to find out about meal reimbursement, I was told that he was entitled to $100. For 2 meals a day for more than a month $100??? Really?? I was charged $11. when I ate with my Dad. Dad is presently at another facility and is much happier. He is addressed by all staff by name and the administrator interacts with residents every day in the dining room and throughout the building. Dad has joined the chorus and is more the outgoing dad that we know. My suggestion, READ ALL PAPERWORK BEFORE you place any initials or signatures anywhere. It could be a very costly mistake!

It was not a good fit for my loved one at The Groves, A Merrill Gardens Community. If you are totally independent and don't need care it might be a good fit for that person. It is super clean, and the staff is very friendly. It is very noisy and chaotic with a lot going on. You might find a resident or two sleeping in the lobby as you come in. You have to have all prescriptions go through their pharmacy and my doctor had problems getting my loved one's medication on hand for her to take. I needed my loved one's medication and food intake monitored. This was not a good fit for us.

My dad is doing fine at Orchard Park at Victory Lakes.

I was not very impressed with the tour I had taken of this community. I did not really like the layout of the building and I found it difficult to navigate through it. It was very impersonal and way to big in my opinion. Everyone was just kind of every where with no organization. It was just not the right place for me in the end decision.

The first thing after walking in was that it reminded me too much of a hospital. The walls were all white and it just gave me the impression of a sterile environment like a hospital. I had toured the community on Mothers Day so I didn't run into a staffing. From what I saw the place was clean. The location was not an issue for me just the overall environment seemed to be lacking any personality. It just seems to be it wasn't going to be the best place for my mom

Place was very cheerful and bright. Not a bit depressing. [Removed] was great in showing us around. The 2 bedroom was perfect if you need and can afford it. We are needing a one bedroom which was comparable to others in price but too small for my parents. I wish it was larger. We loved the courtyards and atmosphere. Traffic in area was not too busy which is a plus. The only negative was the size of the 1 bedroom unit. We will keep looking.

I toured this community for the care of my father. They did not have the type of care that I wanted. The equipment was old and not updated. The tour did not show us a lot of what we were looking for.We did like the staff who did answer our questions. We suggest that families tour the community for the care of a loved one.

I saw a lot of factor while touring this community. It is a lot bigger and we thought it would be overwhelming for us when adjusting to the size. We wanted a one level community to make it easier on us.

We took a tour of this community and we did not find a lot of activities. There were not other residents that were active. The staff was nice and we did find the community to be very clean. We were looking for something more at the time for care for mom.

The community worked with me when I moved in. Things however have not gone as well as I would have hoped. They forgot to run cable into many rooms including mine. It has been about a month since I moved in and I still do not have cable. My room does have a dishwasher, washer and dryer as well as a full size refrigerator. The food is ok but the service to bring it to your room is slow. Housekeeping has not been to my room yet.

I have no complaints about the staff or the tour they gave my loved one and I. They did a great job at informing us of all the different things they offered as well as answering any questions we had for them. I just did not like the fact that it felt more an independent living then an assisted living. The residents where very much on there own.

This community felt like an institution when we visited. It is quite large and the hallways are like a maze. The staff I met were nice and the community was clean.

We found there wasn't enough support. I went evenings to help my mom prepare for bed because there just wasn't enough help to spread around. The food was not restaurant quality as we were told as we signed up. They went through 4 head cooks in the year we were there. I would compare the food to just ok school cafeteria. Friendly employees everwhere. Director, Office staff, and Activity Director were highly caring and respected by all. Seems staff continued to change a lot. So many directors to follow in last years. Not sure what's happening with management. Clean!! Good maintenence staff I continue to visit friends at the Orchard. A lot of really nice residence live there.