Top 9 Nursing Homes near Middlesex County, CT

When I was 13 years old, my mom told me that she never, ever, wanted to be put into a nursing facility and that she was setting up long-term insurance to allow her to stay at home at the end of her life. So, when dementia made that an impossibility, my siblings and I were overcome with guilt and anxiety about how to proceed. The first time I walked into Brookdale Buckingham, my mind was put at ease. The physical environment was as dissimilar as possible from an institution. It was clean, bright, beautiful and inn-like. More important, the emotional environment was warm and nurturing. Our mom has been a resident at Brookdale for 10 months now. Having her there has not only removed the exhausting burden of trying to deal with this heart-breaking disease in her home, but it has removed the guilt and anxiety we felt about her care. Having once worked in the crème de la crème of local nursing homes, and seen some disturbing interactions between aides and patients, I came to the conclusion that any facility is only as loving as the staff on duty. As a dementia-care facility, every single employee at Brookdale Buckingham receives training in understanding and responding to the unique needs and perceptions of dementia patients. I visit our mom regularly and am always comforted to see the caring, patient interaction between staff and residents. Everyone seems aware and current about our mom's status and the staff’s doors are always open to my questions and concerns. Surprisingly, our mom has also thrived on being in a social environment rather than alone at home. While I can’t minimize the heart-wrenching nature of seeing our mom get increasingly lost into her disease, it is an enormous comfort to know that she is receiving the best care we could have imagined. Although the cost of Brookdale is higher than we will be able to manage long-term, we are comforted to know that we are giving her the best care for as long as possible.

The care services have been very good from what we can see, but we are a little concerned with the lack of physical activity on the memory care side. We wish they would have more of a stimulating environment. Non skilled nursing community and is expensive.

Overall experience was fine until my loved one wasn't getting one on one care, which I knew that was going to happen because he wasn't able to do anything on his own. I told [name removed] at Colebrook that they weren't going to be able to give him one on one care, but she was in charge. The people who worked there were fine except for one or two. The facility was clean, the food was good. The activities were good, but my loved one wasn't able to participate unless I or someone else guided him and even then it was only a short time. But at times, he did like to watch. I think Colebrook Village is a good place, but it wasn't for my loved one.