Brookdale

They were really good. The only thing I didn’t like was the way they do their medications is very expensive. It doesn’t make any difference how many pills you take. They charge you the same flat rate if you take two pills that they would if you took 50 and it’s an expensive fee. That was a very big negative for them because my mom doesn’t take many pills.

$2850 Beautiful/ Wonderful place n people

Diablo Lodge was a peaceful, restful experience for Mom as she recovered here for 2 weeks following a major surgery. The staff were helpful, attentive, professional, courteous and friendly. My whole family was very pleased with the overall experience.

Clare Bridge the best facility we reviewed for our father who has early-middle stage dementia. It is not a nursing care facility but does specialize in long-term living for similar types of patients. I really like the fact that there is access to fenced outdoor areas and the window looks out into one of those areas. The grounds are charming. The place is expensive and has a la carte charges for each additional type of special assistance required (for example, helping the resident to dress). On the other hand, ALL of these types of communities are pretty expensive, so that is not exceptional. My dad just moved in recently and will stay here until an opening at a preferred nursing home comes up, which will hopefully be soon (as he has been on the waiting list for a few years). In the meantime, this seems like a pretty nice place if the cost is not prohibitively expensive for you. I think in many cases it is a temporary solution for that reason.

Very nice facility . Initial impression of staff person who opened the door was negative, but Kelly was very helpful and informative. This would be a possible option for us.

Mom always had fresh salads fruits and vegetables every day. A fruit bowl was always on hand changed with the seasons. There are five alternatives available at every meal, including omlettes. And fresh soups at lunch and dinner. The head of food service meets with residents for feedback and requests for future meals. Breakfast has not menu because they serve nearly everything a restaurant would, including poached eggs. The staff is helpful and friendly and communicate with receptionist/dispatch via walkie talkie. Only shortcoming I noticed is small elevators to the four floors and wait for elevator service. A maintenance staff is available for small tasks, and repairs.

My mother particiapted in some of the activities but I didn't think there were enough of them. We were in the nursing facility which was a little different than what she needed but I thought it was very good. We had a little bit of an issue with the administration, we felt that we were sort of misled to sign up for there because they had assured us that within a week she would be put in the memory care and it became obvious within a couple of weeks that something wouldn't become available for an extended period of time and they never should have said that. They did refund us our money though.

I stopped by on Sat. Really nice public spaces. A one bedroom there might work if I could work more on the price but there is not one available. Unfortunately my mom can't have any kind of dementia diagnosis.

They have a good staff but it's very expensive. The cost depends on the size of your apartment and my aunt has a large apartment so it's more expensive. The care is okay. You have to ask for things and my aunt's not always asking. If they're asked they're right on it! They're very friendly. It's not an assisted living. it's just senior living so they just let you be unless you ask for some thing. It's very good, the service is good there. There are a lot of activities. Again, a lot of it is on the residents to actually sign up and go to things. They do a lot. My aunt likes the people. She has a beautiful apartment. Santa Catalina Villas is a really nice place. They are very friendly and helpful as much as they can be. She's safe and she can go and get meals as she needs them. Everyday somebody will check on her.

For both: The Gardens seemed well run, residents and staff were friendly and seemed happy, eveything looked and smelled clean, the rooms we saw were light and airy, and you can't beat the location. The Gardens also offer lots of helpful extra services and amenities. My only dissapointment was there weren't more 1- and 2-bedroom units in the building. At this point, I don't see my father and stepmother being willing to move into a studio.

It was nice but they didn't have a two bedroom available at the time. I didn't like the fact that there weren't washer and dryers inside the apartment amd it was smaller.

care seems good but the lack of actual activities is worring

very well organized, good helpful staff, close to home, very clean, PT, OT, SPEECH Therapies available, on call staff are very good...good nutritional meals, group therapy available for family members, excellant memory care unit.

They were extra accommodating when my 93 year old Mother was unable to remain at another Assisted Living facility because she needed "double assist" when her leg had some issues and was determined it should be non weight bearing for a time period. My Mother was sent away from one facility and had to find another facility in a very short period of time and Kimberly Bland was willing on a weekend to help out our family and assure us we could move her to Sterling House.

My mother is in independent living, but the care is okay. Ithink the events are fine, but the issue is my mother isn't really taking advantage of them which is an issue. One, it's her phsyical condition, she's a little embarrassed and I think she hesitates venturing out for any length of time. That's probably the most contributing factor in her not taking advantage of the tremendous opportunity for events. For instance, they provide transportation to shopiing and things like that, and she doesn't want to go. The only comment would be that it would be nice if the staff were even more adamant about encouraging her to do it and making plans with her to do them. I know they can't force her, but it would be nice if they encouraged her. She had pneumonia so she had to go from her home to the hospital and then we moved her into the skilled nursing at Westlake because it was one of the few in the area that had that component. After her stint in skilled nursing, we insisted on her going to the independent living right then and there.

Andrea Hudgins was warm, courteous and quite knowledgeable about the community. She quickly identified that at my level of independence, the cottage homes would be the best fit. This property is among those being considered further.

Mom liked this facility. Concerns with independent living vs assisted living but in her price range. They do not have an apartment available at this time.

We felt that they were nice, they have a dementia unit in the basement basically so it wasn't very appealing as a place mother would live every day. It was clean, I think the company that runs it runs a tight ship, it wasn't a bad place, the Solana just fit our needs better.

It's expensive but that's true no matter where you go. The activities are there if the residents want to participate in them. They have cooking, exercise, music, and other various things. I think maybe the staff ratio could be better. I know that it's like six or seven to one but some times it seems like more, maybe because someone calls in sick. Sometimes I don't know that they're able to watch as closely as they'd like to. My mom isn't really aware of where she is. She thinks that it's her house and she supervises everyone so it's day to day. Some days she's happy and some day she's not but I would say she's being well taken care of.

It was excellent, my mother was here almost 3 and a half years and I think they did everything in the world that they could do to try to keep her there. The problem they have in that facility is they have not had an executive director in 2 years, they've had interim directors but they don't really get to know the patients and they don't want to so Brookdale just puts people in there and they come and go. I really had a problem with that because no one was in charge so to speak. When my mother left, the staff was excellent, they are great people, my hats off to these people because that job is a mission, not just a job. They are so good and in fact, one of the ladies in Burlington Manor still texts me routinely asking about my mom and how she's doing. The director thing was a problem and then they went and fired a lot of people who had been there a while. The biggest complaint I ever heard was about the food and I was there a lot of the times when my mom was eating and it didn't look all that good. The people here are so much happier, they said it wasn't home, but that it was okay and they were happy and that's one of the things I liked about it.