Rivermead

Stefanie

I went to Rivermead. It's a five-star hotel and I'd like to be there. It's well-appointed. It's a beautiful building. And their memory care unit is their oldest building. It's beautiful. It's clean. It's attractive. All the staff and people I met were very, very kind and very nice. The person who was showing me around was awesome and explained everything. They showed me to the room that I felt we'd be able to have. It's a lovely room, well-appointed, and good-sized overlooking a garden. It's just beautiful. The memory unit, when you go up and when you want to come down, you need a code to make the elevator work. If you don't have the code, the elevator does not work. So, if my husband was wandering around, he could not get out by accident. The residents that I saw there were very happy. One group of people were playing bingo. Everyone seemed very happy and very nice. They seemed to have enough staff for the number of residents. It was gorgeous. And I would love to put my husband in there, but unfortunately, it is private pay.

Joyce

I think the Rivermead was a lovely place. Location wise, it's a campus and it's beautiful. It's just kind of over-the-top for my folks. They're a lot more down-to-earth and want simple living. It is a gorgeous campus though. We toured independent living, assisted living, and nursing. They have all of it there. The staff was very professional too. The facilities and their ability to communicate were just excellent. It's brand-new, updated, and was just great. They have bowling, an art gallery, and a library. They kind of have everything, it's like its own campus and its own community.

longwalks

We were completely smitten by the ambiance of this community on our first visit 2 years ago and we love the Peterborough area. Since we are in mid-seventies it seemed logical to go on the wait list for the future and so we did. However, gradually the less favorable and hidden aspects of River Mead started to emerge. First, it was 9 months later that we found out the main reason for the very high price, especially for what would normally be a lower cost rural community, was the unusual business model. For the last few years around 50 % of the fees have been essentially going into their health insurance budget which is there if your level of care increases without impacting the monthly fee rate. Most similar places take only ~ 30 %. So, unless you are feeling in poor health, River Mead may not be the best choice. Residents are informed at the beginning of each year exactly how much they can deduct as medical expenses for tax purposes. We would not be surprised if this loophole is changed at some point in the future severely affecting River Mead. Second, it does not help when River Mead hides it supposed not for profit status in its required 1099 tax filing under a different name… The Retirement Community at Upland Farm. There you will see an extremely lavish compensation package for the River Mead executives. Some similar places post their 1099s right on their website so there is easy transparency for potential residents, especially the ones who are hit with a sudden health or death crisis and don't have time to do all the necessary due diligence before making a huge financial commitment, or they simply don't have the wherewithal to think of asking certain questions. Third, although River Mead is probably the most expensive country retirement community in New England, they are extremely stingy on spending money for cultural activities like speakers and music. In a conversation with an executive at a villa open house in 2019, when I asked about this allocation, after a long seemingly evasive hesitation I was told several thousand. That could mean just a few thousand which is very little compared to the sum of all their fees and what most CCRCs allocate. Marketing later told me that it was mostly up to the residents to organize cultural activities at their expense! At the same time River Mead is unusual in that it does not spend on CARF (meeting accepted CCRC standards), Fitch (financial) or Medicare certifications.... like most similar places. The absence of recent Fitch ratings is of most concern. Fourth, River Mead does not provide any choice in meal plans. Everyone has to take 30 or so meals a month regardless of whether they use their allocation or not. To be fair such plans exist in many than other similar communities, but there are some that have a lot of flexibility. So, if you simply want a light meal, or have your own special preferences in your unit or visit a restaurant... you are paying double... all for the convenience of the River management with a "one size fits all". River Mead has the nicest ambiance both inside and outside its buildings of any CCRC we have visited and from the several visits and meals we have shared with residents we heard no complaints. But at the same time, and without prompting by us, we did hear that most of these residents had moved there because they already had a heath issue. It seems that the entrance health requirements at River Mead are lower than in most places. So for us, the main reason for getting off the River Mead wait list was that we could not accept the huge cost of privately socialized care insurance when we don’t even see the need the foreseeable future.

John812752

My wife put in an awful lot of buy-in money at Rivermead, and it's much more luxurious than where I would want to live. It has an indoor swimming pool -- which she uses everyday because she loves swimming. She has a cottage that is really like a condo, and it has everything. She can walk her doggie several times a day, and she's very happy. It's a very large retirement community. One of the reasons why my wife chose that place is because it also has assisted living and memory care on another building. It is located out in the mountains, out in the country which is much more comfortable.

EvelynFDRRQ

Rivermead has cottages. We saw two of them and they were really beautiful. They were renovating and putting in whatever the new people wanted. They were very accommodating during our tour.

sorrisa

We moved my mother there last year after a lengthy discussion with her over the need to move. She was not enthused at all about leaving her home. My sister and I looked at four other places and Rivermead stood out as the best. When we took Mom there it met her approval even though she was still very reluctant to move. We quickly bought one of the apartments in The Villages ( the newer complex) Moving day was like coordinating the Normandy Invasion but it went off smoothly with the help of the wonderful staff there. Mom kept talking about how it would take her " a long time to get use to being here " and she talked a lot about how she would probably not be taking part in activities for a "long time" WELL... the next day I tried calling her and after 5 hrs got concerned enough to call the nurses station. Apparently Mom got up, went to breakfast and was off and running having done Mobility Class and was at a music concert ! Rivermead has exceeded our expectations. The staff there is amazing from nursing to housekeeping to the kitchen. Mom is involved in activities that I never imaged she would participate in ( crafts) and is enjoying herself more than she has since my dad died . Physically she looks better and seems healthier due to having the socialization that is so necessary . The food is institutional BUT it is well prepared , healthy and there is a good variety. At some point Mom will have to move to the Special Memory Unit and I am sure that it will be as wonderful for her as The Villages is. I recommend this place highly !!! Thank you RM for helping to make all our lives easier.