Care in assisted living was fine as long as my mother was not reliant upon assistance. She had to move into the health care area and the level of care was abysmal. The wait for assistance to go to the bathroom was far too long and sometimes, nonexistent. I believe the health care area is woefully understaffed and the care my mother received was unconscionable. She went days without showering, her nails and teeth were disgusting and she frequently was wearing someone else's clothes. In addition, the people we dealt with in administration were poorly trained, ridiculously bureaucratic and obstructive.

My Mother was at Westminster Village for approximately 6 years. She began in Independent Living went to Assisted Living and finally ended in the Health Center. If you do not need personal care and can leave the facility for meals, Westminster is nice. It is a lovely facility with many options. However if you need nursing staff and have all your meals there it is not worth the costs. The nursing staff are kind and caring, the “servers” in the restaurants are also kind, caring and fun. But the facility is understaffed. Waiting for help to use the restroom or go to a meal can take 10-20 minutes. My Mother needed 2-3 aides because of her disabilities. What the aides were taught was to have one come and turn off her alert button then go try to find another aide. I witnessed a manager doing this with my Mom. This allows their records of timed responses to be inaccurate but fine for them. When we first moved Mom to the Health Center she became shamed and upset because it took so long it was too late for her to use the bathroom and she had to be changed. The nursing staff was quite kind but I watched my Mom lose her dignity. The cost of a single room in the Heath Area was approximately $20,000 a month. When we could no longer afford this she was moved to a small shared room. The cost for it was approximately $10,000 a month. The smaller room was difficult for her to navigate. First she had an electric scooter. Then we ended up with a wheelchair. Both difficult to maneuver in her room. She was unable to reach the faucet because her wheelchair could not get under the sink area. In regards to the understaffing in both the rooms and dining areas I spoke with many different managers numerous times but nothing was ever done. I was told they had “ the state requirement “ of aides. I later found out there was no such requirement. My Mother had a difficult time finding any appetizing food (Wild boar and alligator were two choices). She always said the best part of the meal was her tea. One evening my Mother’s roommate was served a hamburger that was raw in the middle. One evening when I was with my Mom the electricity went out due to a storm. Many of the residents used oxygen, including my Mom. All the staff was working extremely well and quickly to try to find emergency plugs along with taking care of the frightened residents in the darkened rooms. Without family members helping the staff it would have been more chaotic. NO MANAGER CAME TO HELP!!!! My sister or I stayed with my Mom everyday when we could, which was almost always. At the end we were there 24/7 to make sure she was helped. If you are an independent resident the facility is nice however if you need nursing help I could not recommend Westminster. The staff were all quite nice and caring but the management has one concern and it is not the residents or the staff. We would have moved my Mom to another facility however she did not have the strength mentally or physically to leave a place where she had lived for so long. Staying with Westminster was quite challenging for our whole family. What was a difficult and sad time on our lives was exacerbated by dealing with the poor management at Westminster in trying to get proper care for our Mother.

My grandfather has lived at Westminster for 2 years now in his own apartment. The facility is very nice and has much to offer its residents. However, he is now needing Assisted Living Services and there are no beds available. The social workers and financial staff have not been helpful at all, and did not provide any recommendations or assistance in finding another facility. We were able to locate another facility and are moving him out. During this process we also found Westminster to be quite pricey compared to other places.

My grand father was a long term resident of West Minster Village until late last year. The facility is one of the cleanest nursing/assisted living centers in my area. They do not have the sterile atmosphere that most of them around here do. At first my grand father had his own little apartment with kitchenette and bedroom. The nursing service was great and they checked on him several times a day. He had the ability to eat in the dining room each meal, or he could have food brought to his room. The facility reminded me more of a hotel than a nursing/assisted living center. They had daily activities and games going on for the seniors to participate in. They also had weekly outings to different places in the Lafayette area. Even when he was not able to live on his own in the assisted center and had to be moved to the nursing area he was still in his own room. I think that the staff at West Minster Village took excellent care of my grand father and I know that I would recommend them to anyone. He was very happy there and he gained so much social interaction that he was not getting when he was still in his home. I hope I am lucky enough to end up in such a nice place when I need assistance later in life.