Independent Living Community in Tewksbury, Massachusetts

Kathleen

I chose Wood Haven Senior Living because it is full memory care; it is not a memory care unit within an assisted living facility. The facility is set up like a neighborhood, so there is a coffee shop, a movie theater, and a sports room inside. It's large, and they have the run of the whole place, as opposed to just a small section within a larger assisted living. I just like the whole theme of it -- that they are able to walk a lot more because they're not restricted to a small area, and it has a lot of features that I think are very good for somebody with dementia. My husband has only been there for about a week and a half now, and he seems to be doing very well. The staff members are extremely professional, very thorough, extremely well trained, and very compassionate, so I'm very delighted. I said to the executive director that my husband is a former businessman and he is probably not going to work on projects, but she said, "We have several people like that here, so I'll just add an extra chair in my main office, so that they are welcome to come in and sit at my desk, and we can give them things to do." She also said, "We view this place as their home and we're the visitors -- and we're here to make every day wonderful for them." They have that mentality that the residents are first, it's their home, and that all the staff who works there makes sure that they feel like they're at home. My husband has a private studio, which is quite ample in size. We were able to fit in a full-size bed with two nightstands and a recliner, and there is a lot of closet space. They all have double windows, so they get a lot of natural light. He is facing the woods, which he actually likes because he likes to see nature and stuff like that. The room is very well done, and they have DIRECTV and wireless, so if he wants to enjoy something in his room, he can. There is so much thought that has gone into the way the facility is set up that is just amazing. The activities are very good. They fall in line with pretty much the standard that most of them have. My husband loves doing the exercise, and they have all the games, too. He is on the younger side, but there are several men his age, and they all like to gather and read their newspapers and talk about the articles up in the front with the receptionist. It is nice and sunny up there, and that seems to be what they love. Also, they're much more economical than other facilities I looked at.

M.J.

Wood Haven is more like institutionalized. They try to keep them busy doing activities and stuff, but it was more of a hospital setting. Everything seemed to be pretty good there. It wasn't as clean as I would want it to be. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't really good. The rooms looked pretty nice on video, but I really didn't get to go back inside to where the patient's room was because of COVD-19. We were inside, in the front entrance way, and around where they had their meals. They had a little library, they had like TV rooms, they were big on letting the people walk around, and they had one music room where they played music and stuff. The staff was pretty nice.

Visitor

My mother has been in Peregrine’s Landing at Tewksbury for about a month. We chose it because it has the type of facility that she needs. She needed a memory care facility. The people are very nice and very helpful. The place is very sunny, clean, small, and decorated well. Their food is not great but not terrible. They don’t do a lot of activities, but they had a singer the other night, movies, trivia, and board games. She also gets physical therapy which is very nice.