Being with family isn’t always the best option when you’re in your retirement years, even when you feel cared for and loved. Sometimes, you need to be surrounded by people who understand your particular needs as a senior or a retiree.
Assisted living facilities offer an ‘escape’ from the feeling of isolation. They create an environment wherein you’re with people who share your renewed interests and perspectives.
Florida, The Sunshine State, is among the ideal destinations to enjoy your golden years. However, you have to consider important factors like facilities, environment, and type of care when choosing where to retire.
Based on these crucial factors, what are the best assisted living facilities in Florida?
Better Days Senior Living has a network of renowned cardiologists, neurologists, and critical-care doctors. Mission Oaks offers an immersive experience in a stylish environment, while Camelot Chateau lets you live among rolling hills and tree-lined scenic country roads.
This article covers essential factors when choosing an assisted living facility in Florida. It includes the requirements to qualify for the waiver program ALE and the average cost in communities across the state. We also categorized this list of assisted living facilities in Florida based on factors that matter most to you.
How to Qualify for Assisted Living in Florida
From people and surroundings to activities and opportunities, an assisted living facility helps your transition into a community that understands you. However, paying for the cost of care is another concern. Fortunately, Florida is a state that offers a waiver program called Assisted Living for the Elderly Waiver (ALE). Here are the general requirements:
- 60 to 64 years old and disabled (according to the Social Security standards)
- 65 years or older
- Florida resident and US citizen
- Individual income limit of $2,000
- Needing assistance with four or more ADL or diagnosed with degenerative mental conditions
What Is The Average Cost Of An Assisted Living Facility in Florida?
According to the 2019 Genworth’s Cost of Care Survey, the average cost of assisted living in Florida is $3,500 a month. However, the cost varies from $2,800 to $5,400.
The more affordable ones ($2,800 to $3,400) are in Tampa, Sebastian, Miami, and Punta Gorda. Areas like Lakeland, Port St. Lucie, and Gainesville peg between $3,400 to $3,500. In locations like Deltona, Tallahassee, Panama City, and The Villages, the monthly cost is quite steep at $4,500 to $5,400.
Assisted Living Facility Checklist: What to Look For
As a senior, you have distinct needs, preferences, and interests. When looking for the best-assisted living facility, below are some factors to consider.
Professional Care
Round-the-clock professional care is crucial, performed by skilled and well-trained staff.
Amenities
A wide array of facilities means endless options to explore activities that peak your senses.
Safety
You’re vulnerable to hazards like falls as a senior, so ensure that safety is among the top priorities in the facility.
Transportation
Mobility is among the challenges of seniors. Knowing that moving in and around the facility is covered goes a long way.
Interaction
An ideal senior facility offers its residents the chance to socialize, particularly with people who share their interests. A healthy interaction also includes that with the staff.
Activities
From dining to exploring new and existing interests, activities promote your overall wellness. Doing something you enjoy with a group instead of alone gears you toward an exciting, senior life.
Food
Balanced and nutritional meals are core elements when older, particularly if you have specific dietary requirements.
Environment
Environment plays an essential role in your life as a senior. It should offer a sense of belongingness, comfort, contentment, and happiness.
Cost
There might not be a price to a well-lived senior life, but the cost of living in an assisted living facility can make or break the deal for some.
14 Best Assisted Living Facilities in Florida
Here are our top choices of assisted living facilities in Florida.
- Better Days Senior Living
- Angels Senior Living
- The Capstone At Royal Palm
- Mission Oaks
- Marion Oaks
- Marrinson Senior Care Residences
- Banyan Place
- Camelot Chateau
- Heidi’s Haven
- Palms Edge
- Camellia at Deerwood
- Madison At Ocoee
- Brookdale Dr. Phillips
- Sonata Senior Living
Categorized based on factors that are important to you, here’s an in-depth look at these assisted living facilities.
Advanced Care
1. Better Days Senior Living
Better Days is among the assisted living facilities in Florida that offer its residents a unique experience while living in the state’s northeast.
As a physician-owned and direct-care home, it has a network of renowned cardiologists, neurologists, and critical-care doctors ready to meet your needs. Its advanced care includes treatments for atrial fibrillation, stroke, arrhythmia, TIA, and dementia.
Better Days Senior Living offers customized bedtime routines and wake-up calls tailored to your unique preference.
There are two types of units in this facility – Riverside and Orange Park.
2. Angels Senior Living
This community in South Tampa focuses on Memory Care, covering mental challenges like dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other cognitive illnesses surrounding memory loss.
There’s a garden to tend green beans, tomatoes, and roses, together with amenities that promote growth and comfort.
Apart from assisted living, Angels Senior Living offers care for caregivers looking to take a break.
Respite Care is a short-term arrangement for caregivers who want to relax or need time to focus on their work. Adult Day Care lets caregivers experience the same activities and amenities that their loved ones enjoy.
Home-style favorites and culinary specialties are served on a rotating menu, prepared with fresh ingredients in a state-of-the-art kitchen.
Apart from various activities to stimulate your senses, the facility offers rehabilitation therapies using art, music, and animals.
3. The Capstone At Royal Palm
The Capstone At Royal Palm is among the assisted living facilities in Florida that offer memory care.
A loving staff gives you personalized senior care while a chef ensures that you’re nourished as you dine with your peers.
Its social calendar is robust with award-winning social programs that engage your mind amidst a backdrop of a well-landscaped courtyard.
This community has no monthly buy-in fees, offering flexible monthly lease options. Located along Okeechobee Boulevard near State Road 7 in Royal Palm Beach, Florida, choose among studio, one, or two-bedroom apartments.
Stylish
4. Mission Oaks
Mission Oaks aims for an immersive, one-on-one experience in an environment that exudes style while meeting your needs as a senior.
Its spacious apartments accommodate individuals, couples, and shared-living arrangements, ensuring your comfort while enjoying the facility’s amenities and features.
Located near The Villages in Central Florida, Mission Oaks offers different floor plans. There are 6 Assisted Living Floorplans, 3 Memory Care Floorplans in the north, and 6 in the south.
Amenities include a Therapy & Spa Suite, Beauty & Barber Shops, Concierge, Transportation, LIbrary with an internet connection, Movie Theater, and an Ice Cream Parlor.
Mission Oaks also offers a Senior Day Retreat for your caregivers.
Intimate
5. Marion Oaks
Marion Oaks is a small community that offers an intimate ambiance while exploring opportunities to socialize with your peers.
This community has a two-story building where assisted living units are located on the ground floor while memory care is upstairs. The spacious apartments have attached bathrooms, available either as private or semi-private accommodation, with porches on select units.
Marion Oaks’ package costs are all-in without add-on charges, covering electricity, internet, TV, housekeeping, and laundry costs. There are group and one-on-one activities daily, plus a monthly Resident Council Meeting to discuss how to make your stay even richer.
Continuous Care
6. Marrinson Senior Care Residences
This assisted living facility in Florida offers a full continuum of care, from its skilled health providers to its services covering independent living, rehabilitation, and respite care.
The Marrinson Senior Care Residences has been providing senior care for more than five decades. With residences located in South Florida and South Carolina, its eight locations offer experiences that are warm, welcoming, and enjoyable.
Williamsburg Landing in Fort Lauderdale has a lush landscape and backyard water views. With the Middle River as your backdrop, the community offers spacious studios, one-bedroom apartments, and two-bedroom units. A chef prepares your meals, and you can schedule chauffeured transportation.
Margate Manor offers an intimate setting on a waterfront ambiance. Dedicated staff assists you in grooming, medication management, bathing, and dressing while giving you independence. Its full-time activities director and staff constantly invigorate your social calendar through stimulating programs like art classes, exercise regimens, and local outings.
Budget-Friendly
7. Banyan Place
Banyan Place in Boca Raton specializes in assisted living senior care at an affordable cost. It offers 24-hour supervised care with assistance for daily living activities and medical monitoring.
Nutritional meals are served three times a day, while a team of professional staff assists with your personal needs like dressing, bathing, walking, and mobility.
Apartments are beautifully furnished with either a kitchen or a kitchenette, a walk-in shower, a closet, and DirecTV. You get access to wireless internet, plus services like housekeeping, linen, and maintenance of apartments, community, and grounds.
Banyan Place has an onsite alternate power that can support 100% of the facility in case of power interruptions.
Special Programs and Services include Memory Care, Therapy (Occupational, Physical, and Speech), while activities involve dancing, arts and crafts, games, exercises, yoga, and outings.
Scenic Ambiance
8. Camelot Chateau
At Camelot Chateau in Ocala, you live among rolling hills and tree-lined scenic country roads. It has 80 units to choose from, each offering an open and casually elegant ambiance in six spacious floor plans.
Rural living in Camelot Chateau comes with the conveniences of urban living. You live near three major hospitals and the Centers, a multi-service county health system, plus numerous specialty clinics, both public and private.
During its routine evaluation in 2015, Camelot Chateau earned thumbs up from the State of Florida for its facility compliance with the applicable Florida Statutes.
Homelike Setting
9. Heidi’s Haven
Heidi’s Haven Residential Assisted Living Facilities in Florida offer a homelike environment, easing your transition into your senior years.
Like living with a big happy family, experience friendly assistance as you dress, bathe, and groom while enjoying your stay in private rooms optimized for comfort. Some units are already furnished and decorated, but you’re free to personalize your space.
Heidi’s Haven tailor-fits its care plans to your distinct needs and health requirements. Your daily housekeeping and laundry needs are covered, plus the home-cooked nutritious meals come with drinks, fresh fruits, and snacks.
There’s an afternoon happy hour, daily newspapers, and in-house beautician service.
10. Palms Edge
This assisted living and memory care facility in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, offers a homelike environment for your retirement years.
Palms Edge aims to exceed your expectations, providing excellent care while maintaining your dignity, independence, and well-being. Its professional staff is available round the clock, focusing on dementia and Alzheimer’s care.
The facility is easy to navigate, with doors equipped with keypad entries. The outdoor porches and courtyard areas are secured and monitored by security cameras.
Three meals are served every day with snacks, and there’s an onsite beauty/barber salon. Transportation to your medical appointments is free within a 20-mile radius.
11. Camellia at Deerwood
Camella at Deerwood lives by the motto, ‘It’s not like home. It is home.’ For this community, what you call home is more than a place. It’s a feeling and a way of life that people in Camella at Deerwood take seriously.
You can focus on your health at its fitness center and outdoor swimming pool. Socialize with your peers at the bistro or indulge your interests at the theater, library, and billiards room.
Choose among studios, one, and two-bedroom apartments with either a full kitchen or kitchenette. Select apartment styles have either a balcony or a patio, including washers and dryers.
Luxurious
12. Madison At Ocoee
This community in the Orlando area offers assisted living and memory care services. Supporting its mission to enhance your senior years are passionate staff ready to assist your needs, from daily activities and housekeeping to dining and outdoor exploration.
The Winter Garden Village is an outdoor shopping center that houses shops, restaurants, and a theatre. Downtown Winter Park looks festive with all its Christmas lights and plays. For art enthusiasts, visit Mount Dora, or enjoy the wildlife trails of Lake Apopka.
Professional staff is available 24/7. The meals are chef-inspired with flexible options, topped by beverages and snacks throughout the day. The community features walking paths, a courtyard, a garden, a fireside living room, a bistro, and a piano.
13. Brookdale Dr. Phillips
Along Pin Oak Drive in Orlando is this exclusive senior living community that offers relaxed, resort-style living. Its downtown location gives you easy access to local attractions, theme parks, and state parks.
Enjoy Florida’s sunshine during leisurely walks along its landscaped grounds, courtyard, gardens, and walking paths. You also get customized care from its professional staff, ready to assist with your needs as a senior.
Explore activities in walking clubs, bowling groups, and art and fitness classes. There’s concierge service, a library, a fireside living room, and suites for your guests.
14. Sonata Senior Living
This community’s high standards of care and commitment to service are weaved into your distinct tastes and preferences as a senior. From your daily activities to programs that enhance your health, Sonata Senior Living offers a personalized emphasis on your independence and freedom while cultivating your unique interests.
Located in Boynton Beach, it has a full-service restaurant serving chef-inspired meals. There’s a hair salon, library, theater, game room, and a Wellness Center with access to medical services.
The apartments come in studio and studio deluxe floor plans with integrated smoke detectors. Wi-fi, cable, and phone are included in the living packages.
Conclusion: 14 Best Assisted Living Facilities in Florida
Let’s review our picks for the best assisted living facilities in Florida:
- Better Days Senior Living
- Angels Senior Living
- The Capstone At Royal Palm
- Mission Oaks
- Marion Oaks
- Marrinson Senior Care Residences
- Banyan Place
- Camelot Chateau
- Heidi’s Haven
- Palms Edge
- Camellia at Deerwood
- Madison At Ocoee
- Brookdale Dr. Phillips
- Sonata Senior Living
Choosing the best-assisted living facility rests on what perks you the most. Do you enjoy being close to nature? How about living in style or the prospect of advanced care?
Choosing an assisted living facility requires a careful analysis of what makes a specific place ideal for your needs as a senior.
This list of assisted living facilities in Florida aims to help you arrive at an informed decision. From the professional staff and environment to the type of care and amenities, we’re confident that you’d find the perfect new home for you.