Amica Little Lake

As our mother's health started to decline, both physically and mentally at the age of 94, we decided to transfer her to the Amica Little Lake in Barrie to be closer to one of her daughters. She moved to an apartment on the assisted living floor where we were very impressed with the comfortable home like decor and beautiful outdoor setting. The staff were truly amazing! She was immediately welcomed, genuinely adored and treated as someone special. Everyone made sure we were informed of mom's wellbeing. Huge thanks to the RCP’s, nurses, food services and life enrichment co-ordinators for your personal attention. Special thanks to [name removed] the Life Enrichment assistant who was monumental in making sure mom was involved in all activities, feeling loved, and well connected to family, setting up FaceTime between mom and her daughters living afar. Thank you again for adding to the enrichment of moms life.

Please be aware of the issues Amica is having when it comes to returning the $XXX [amount removed] deposit to be on their waitlist. I initially spoke with the director [name removed] in July, 2022, at which time I informed her that my mother had passed away and so would like her taken off the waitlist. I was told that the $XXX [amount removed] deposit would be refunded, and I would receive a cheque in the mail within a couple of weeks. I waited patiently, then nearer the end of August called [name removed] again, as I still had received nothing, and have called a number of times since. I have been given a few different excuses as to the delays, after “deep dives” into the problem, followed by continued empty promises of the cheque being sent out asap etc. I will also note that only once has [name removed] called me to give an update in the 3 months this saga has been going on. Certainly not stellar customer service considering the fault is on their end. I was also told [secondhand information removed].

the latest review, by [name removed] is actually an Amica employee, or at least she was the last that our family was involved there. I just thought it would be helpful for people who are seriously looking at placing loved ones there to be aware of this. Thank you

I cannot say enough about the staff and support Amica provides. They genuinely care about your loved one. Care is personalized. And programs and activities are incredible. Lots of engagement. They offer a full continuum of care, which means if your loved one's needs become more complex, they have the means with which to care for them.

If you can live here completely independently it's fine. As others have noted, they fail miserably if the resident needs any type of ongoing or regular assistance. The scheduled administering of meds is missed frequently, house keeping can be anytime or missed completely, if meals need to be delivered they could be any time or totally missed. When staff is contacted they simply lie to tell you what you want to hear to get rid of you. When you take it higher to an on site manager, they are never available to take a telephone call, they're always conveniently in meetings and don't seem to find the time to call back. The welcome staff at the front desk are friendly and great but the employees who do the day to day physical work set the bar low and still fail to reach it. Your loved one will need a hands on full time advocate to see they are getting the care they need on a daily basis and monitor their well being very, very closely. It's not like Amica lets on.

My mom spent only one month at Amica in early 2020, before we had her admitted to the hospital, as she was not receiving the level of care that we felt acceptable from a very expensive facility. There were days when she did not get out of bed and nobody came to her room to check on her. Assisted showers had to be requested, and often staff would return hours later or not show up at all the provide the service that we were paying for. I should clarify that she was in the assisted living portion of the residence. The dining facilities were okay, however food was often luke-warm and lacking in flavour. Meal times also tended to be pretty early, despite the sales team informing us that food was available 24/7. Going for dinner at 6pm typically guaranteed you a less than adequate meal. We were assured that when our mom arrived, there would be a "welcoming committee" that would drop by and invite her out to activities. This never occurred and she did not participate in any of the entertainment provided. We had informed the staff that she was not a "joiner" and that she would require some persuasion to participate. My mom was admitted to Hospice after her stay at the hospital. Trying to cancel her room was a horrible experience (months of unanswered emails and phone calls not returned). We happened to find out from a family friend that another man had moved into her room, despite us still being charged for the facility. Overall, Amica was a poor experience for my family. I think that as a retirement home, it could be a decent experience, however for assisted living and beyond, they have a long way to go in terms of providing safe, compassionate care.

First of all, I have to clarify that I am reviewing for the Assisted Living section of Amica Little Lake. Your site shows a cost that is much lower than actual costs of living at Amica. For a Studio, or Bachelor Suite one will pay $6000+ per month. With any additional services such as medication dispensing or personal care, and the bill will easily run up to $7000, probably even closer to in excess of $8000/month. This is one detail that needs to be stated more accurately. Management has changed, along with Amica being bought out twice over the last few years. This has affected how things are run, and many don’t think that it has been for the better. The Public Relations team is great. The front desk team is simply wonderful. The Activities team are also wonderful and engaged. If there were to be any feedback to the Activities team it would be to suggest more effort be made to draw Assisted Living residents into activities, particularly those with dementia who will not think to ask to partake. The Dining Room staff are also wonderful, kind and go above and beyond to serve those at their tables. The Housekeeping staff, for the most part, work very hard to do the best job that they can with the time that they are allotted. Cleaning throughout the public spaces of the building can be rated at a 4/5, perhaps even more at times, but the cleaning for our loved one’s suite was lacking. Housekeeping and Dining Room/Kitchen — probably the hardest working people in the building. Management of the nursing and personal care staff are another matter altogether. That is Amica Little Lake’s ‘weak link’. There is no accountability, staff are not well supervised or trained, they have been witnessed being dishonest at times, and usually seem to be more concerned with covering themselves than in finding solutions or in providing the best care possible for their residents. If you are going to place your loved one in the Assisted Living wing of Amica Little Lake, but your loved one has dementia and requires some assistance or prompting on a regular basis, by all means do, for the food, the pool, the activities and lovely surroundings — but do so with the hiring of your own private care. This is something that was discouraged to us, at intake time. They want one to believe that they will provide all needed. Don’t believe them. They also prefer to be the only provider. If your loved one has any medical concerns that need regular monitoring do not expect them to provide proper monitoring. It does not happen, unless you bring it to their attention, and even then it is short-lived. If you are able to constantly be monitoring and advocating then this place will work for you. If your loved one were to develop a new health problem do not expect Amica Little Lake to take note of it and take the initiative to address or follow through. It does not happen. Amica Little Lake is a wonderful place for an elderly person to live who can still live independently but is no longer able to or wanting to be in their home. The key is ‘independence’. It is NOT the place that you want your loved one to be if they have dementia and cannot speak up for themselves. Their needs will be neglected. I’m referring to being in the Assisted Living section, with dementia. I cannot speak to the Memory Care wing, which may be much better. What about those who do not yet need to be in the Memory Care wing and yet have dementia (early to mid-stage) and need more assistance? The staff at Amica do not seem to have the experience or understanding needed to work with dementia. They claim to require their staff to undertake dementia training (a fairly recent requirement) and yet one will find upon further questioning that not all staff have done so, or it is only required of the management or those working in Memory Care. As a matter of fact, Amica Little Lake ‘talks the talk’ in many regards but does not follow through in action. I’m referring to the management, not the staff who works with the residents one-on-one. Early on it became evident that Amica Little Lake is more concerned with protecting themselves, and with ensuring that their liability is covered than they are in providing good care for those who are more vulnerable and cannot speak up or do for themselves. If a problem or concern is brought up to them, by resident or by their advocate, it is ignored. Time and again we witnessed this. As for the personal care staff who interact daily with the resident, some of them are very caring and some are very good at their job. Unfortunately there are too many who lack initiative, and the guidance and training needed to assist those with dementia. There is also quite a high turnover rate. One thing I will say regarding the personal care staff at Amica. I have never before visited a seniors’ residence where the staff are so relaxed, sauntering down the hall, sitting around in pairs or threes, laughing, chatting, sometimes drawing or on their phones. Amica does have a variety of entertainment and activities to partake of. The food selection is better than any I have seen, and I have visited and eaten in several different homes for elderly. Unfortunately the food appears to be changing, along with the new ownership, and not for the better. In addition, their dishwasher has not been working properly for over s year, with the glassware coming out still looking dirty, and yet it has not been fixed. These dirty looking glasses, with streaks and a skim of ‘something’ on them are being served daily. Volunteers? We visited daily, for well over a year and volunteers were not evident. Shame, as they could assist in many areas. In the end, our loved one was safe (sort of), well fed, meds given routinely and made new friends, which was also important. Amica Little Lake is the perfect place for some; not so much for others. I hope that this helps you decide whether or not it will be the right fit for your loved one.