Independent Living Community in Salem, Virginia

Joan

I love Brookdale Salem. I think it's great. It has helped my mother quite a bit. The staff members are all very nice, caring, and very helpful. We got the smallest apartment to start out with and she thinks it's too small, but I'm eventually gonna move her to a bigger one. Other than that, it's nice. I'm happy with the place. She has all kinds of therapy. They have this nice little patio they can go sit on if the weather is nice enough. They're up on a hill with beautiful views. She doesn't like the food. She just likes old country food. She thinks it's a little too fancy, and she has some problems with not having any bottom teeth, so she has trouble eating. She doesn't like the fact that they're very careful on how much sodium she gets, but that's for her own health. She's supposed to be low sodium. She thinks some things taste a little bad because it doesn't have any salt in it, but that's just the fact of life that she has to live with. She hasn't signed up for any of the activities yet. With the Covid, they're not doing a lot. They have little things inside the place, like one day they had food set up and all kinds of little snacks for them to have between the meals, but she didn't partake of that. They have bus rides where they can take them out, but she hasn't tried that yet. They have introduced her to a few of the other residents, which has helped, too, because she's slowly beginning to make some friends.

Patty

The person we were supposed to meet at Brookdale Salem didn't show up. They had somebody fill in for her, and we had to wait half an hour. She didn't know anything about pricing and other details. She just took us around to look at the different places. The rooms and the grounds were not nearly as nice as the other place we looked at. They seemed to not be organized at all. There were very many people around, but we didn't see any animals, but they claimed you could have them. None of the people that were going by smiled or talked to us. It didn't seem like people were happy there at all. It wasn't a welcoming place. It was clean and seemed well kept up, but I didn't care for it.

RK

We chose Brookdale Salem for my aunt because it's a bright environment. It's on a hill and the facility itself is very welcoming. It's a cheerful place. The interior and the exterior are very nice. It makes you feel like you'd want to be there. The service and the staff are really good. They have good meals and the dining room is like a restaurant. You have a choice of three different things for lunch and dinner, and you can go in and order like in a restaurant. The food is really good. They have good amenities and a lot of activities. They show movies and they have popcorn. They have outings and they do decorations. The cost is a little much, but she has a lot of care. She is on oxygen and you pay more if you need more care.

Del

I thought the tour at Brookdale Salem was good. They have nice apartments that are very adequate, very clean and very spacious. They have good facilities and good amenities. They have a very good library also. The lunch was good. I met a couple of the staff members. They were good too.