2 Assisted Living Communities in Ballwin, Missouri

ReviewerRD10112020w

I am very happy here and would recommend it to everyone. Overall it’s a good place to live. I think we've been taken very good care of during the COVID virus. We have not had anyone who has had it here and that's a blessing, and I think it's because there's such strong precautions taken so that we would be safe. Overall, I would say it's very, very good. The food is very good. It's very well prepared. The staff tries to meet every need that we have regardless of how small. My apartment is fine. All my furniture that I wanted to bring fits in perfectly. I'm able to go in and out. I can go outside and walk, and I can join activities if I want to. We have a library for reading. I've made friends here and so I'm very pleased.

KS

We chose Briarcrest Estates because it's close to where my father is currently living, it's less expensive than some of the other ones in that area, and they do weekly cleaning. They have different rooms and different floor plans. His room has a nice patio that overlooks a wooded area. The food is okay. He has to watch his sodium, but they don't provide the nutritional value of the food. They claim though that they don't use a lot of sodium. They have a lot on the calendar for him to do. They have a game room, a big screen TV, a workout room, a chapel, and an activity room. It's all independent living, but they have add-ons for medications, showers, etc. We've had some issues with setting up the television, and there were a lot of things that were not ready when we were moving in. It's an older building and a little rundown. It could use some updating.

KS

I looked at the independent living facility at Meramec Bluffs. It was very nice, and the residents looked really happy. The environment was clean, updated and new. They had a lot of amenities and activities. The rooms were nice, updated, and spacious. They had a hallway that had a little shop, a hair salon, and a podiatrist. They had a swimming pool, a library, a movie theater, a bank, a chapel, and a log cabin in the community that you could rent for parties.

Shirley

Meramec Bluffs was very large. It's a full-term facility where you can move into the nursing home section if you became incapacitated. They have a chapel. The people were very lovely, very accommodating, and friendly. It was more expensive than others, and they did not have independent living available when I visited. They have physical therapy, a swimming pool, and a weight room, and they have a separate wing for the short-term rehab. They're well staffed. It's a very lovely place.

Jimmie

Briarcrest Estates was excellent, and I loved it. They have a few 2-bedroom places, but you have to wait years to get into them. The staff was wonderful. They have exercise, games, and trips. The food was good. It’s built on a hill, so when you go into the place you go into the second floor, and I think It’s 4 floors.

V.H.

The visit with Briarcrest was fine, the staff was pretty good, they allow smoking, and so they try to put all of the people who smoke together. We went through the halls and the smell of smoke was overwhelming. It was kind of a turnoff for me because I have allergies. They don’t allow smoking in the dining room or any place like that, but they allow it in the rooms. I was also looking for full kitchen facilities, and they had kitchenettes, with a dorm-size rather than regular size refrigerator. They provide three meals, or two meals, and snacks daily, and there’s probably no need for a full kitchen, but it’s what I wanted. They also do not have laundry facilities in the room, and I want easy access to the laundry facilities. I think the staff was very good, and they called me back and asked me what I thought. The amenities were down on the lower level, you have to take the elevator, and it was not particularly fast and large. The people there were enjoying themselves.

Janet

I visited Briarcrest Estates, but I didn't like it that much. It's oddly shaped, but I liked that it had a lot of windows. However, the rooms were like an octagon shape and it had decks going all around it. It seemed OK, but other people could continually pass by all your windows. The lady that took me around was OK, but the people that actually live there were very unfriendly, and nobody said hi. They had a studio apartment on the ground level, and I saw one lady's room was being cleaned, so she was just waiting on a couch outside. When I asked her how she liked her studio apartment, she just looked at me, so I had to ask again. She finally answered me in a real snotty kind of. way The rooms were bigger than others, but the bathroom entrance is not off the bedroom, so you still have to walk around the wall into the hallway to go into the bath. They didn't have full refrigerators and there was no cooking in the room at all. The rooms just had a sink and a little refrigerator.

Johnny

Briarcrest Estates is very dated and it's not the most modern place in the world. The person who showed me around was very nice and good. The dining area was OK. There's a barber and beauty shop. They have to just get up to date with their décor. Their display room was terrible and had old furniture from different places. The bed was made up, but was not what I would call ready for display. The overall thing I didn’t care for out there was the egress onto Clayton Road, which has heavy traffic, and you'd have a heck of a time getting out of the place when making a left turn out of Clayton Road.

Carol

Briarcrest Estates is the closest one to us. It's a nice place. They serve three meals a day, and the room looked nice. She looked at a one-bedroom with a little outside balcony and nice, large, sleeping area. It's a great facility. I've eaten there, and there's nothing wrong with the food. It's in a very nice area with a lot of stores, restaurants, and easy access to the highway. They provide transportation and have outings. I highly recommend it.