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                                                                   EXHIBIT 99.2


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Suzanne C. Shirley
VP--Investor and Public Relations
(714) 751-7400


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


                ARV ASSISTED LIVING NAMES PATRICIA J. GIFFORD, MD
                        TO NEW CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER POST


COSTA MESA, CALIFORNIA, JUNE 12, 1998 - ARV Assisted Living, Inc. (AMEX: SRS)
announced today the appointment of Patricia J. Gifford, MD, to the new position
of Chief Medical Officer. She is expected to join the company June 15 and will
report to ARV Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard G. Phanstiel.

           Dr. Gifford, a geriatrician, most recently served as Medical Director
for the Monarch Healthcare medical group in Mission Viejo, California, an
independent practice association consisting of 130 primary care physicians
managing approximately 100,000 lives in South Orange County. Among her
responsibilities in this role were the supervision of quality assurance and
utilization review, guidance of the case management process, assisting the
clinical pharmacist with the creation and implementation of pharmacy guidelines,
and the creation and direction of disease management programs. In creating a
subacute service to deliver on site care for patients in skilled nursing
facilities, Dr. Gifford reduced length of stay by 20%, resulting in reduced
costs and improved patient and family satisfaction. She joined Monarch in 1996
as clinical director, subacute service.

           Since 1995 Dr. Gifford has also served as Medical Director of
Wellness and Geriatrics for 224-bed Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna
Hills, California. In this role she was Medical Director for Coordinated Home
Care, a skilled nursing service for both Medicare and managed care patients.
This became a part-time position after she joined Monarch Healthcare. Dr.
Gifford has also served as Medical Director of Saddleback Home Caregivers, a
non-skilled home nursing service for private pay patients. Her other duties at
Saddleback included promoting community education and directing outpatient
geriatrics and wellness programs.

           In announcing Dr. Gifford's appointment, Howard Phanstiel said, "One
of our key strategies is to differentiate ARV by becoming a more
`medically-friendly' company. We want to improve our customers' access to both
quality medical and rehabilitation services as well as offer state-of-the-art
social models to help our elderly residents live as independently as possible in
a retirement community setting. The creation of this new post




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and the addition of Pat Gifford to our senior management team is a critical step
forward in this process for ARV."

           Dr. Gifford will be responsible for overseeing ARV's quality
assurance, coordinating its recently announced joint ventures with Omnicare and
Novacare, and for developing new ARV relationships with the medical community
which will enhance ARV's products and services.

           Previously, Dr. Gifford served part-time as Medical Director of the
Freedom Village Continuing Care Residential Community in Lake Forest from 1995
to 1997. Prior to moving to Orange County she was Clinical Director of
Geriatrics from 1990 to 1995 at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, a
400-bed not-for-profit teaching hospital affiliated with the USC School of
Medicine. Simultaneously she held a part-time post as Medical Director of the
Villa Gardens Continuing Care Residential Community and was a clinical
instructor at the Huntington Extended Care Center, both in Pasadena.

           Dr. Gifford, 50, was an internist in private practice from 1982 to
1988 in Los Angeles, with hospital privileges at The Hospital of the Good
Samaritan. She earned her BA from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and
her MD from the University of Southern California. She completed her internship
and residency in internal medicine at Good Samaritan, and a fellowship in
geriatrics at USC Medical Center. Dr. Gifford is Certified by the American Board
of Internal Medicine in Geriatric Medicine and Internal Medicine, and by the
American Medical Directors Association. She is an affiliate of the American
College of Physician Executives, the American Geriatrics Society, the American
Medical Directors Association, and a Board Member of the South County Senior
Services, Inc. Dr. Gifford currently is a resident of Laguna Niguel, California.

           Founded in 1980, ARV is one of the nation's largest operators of
assisted living communities, operating 61 communities containing 7900 units in
11 states. Three communities comprising 370 units are under construction in
California, Florida and Nevada, and the company is also under contract to
purchase interests in three additional senior housing communities in California
containing approximately 500 units.


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