Brookdale

My husband has actually left there. The Sterling House prices were varying as much as $5000 and they started at $2200. His care was getting more severe. When he got a lot worse they couldn't manage him or get him to take a shower. He would be sitting in his own feces. The price was up so high and I had to go there every day. It was really frustrating. They would leave dirty clothes in the room, so I brought laundry home and did it. I know that he got difficult, I realize that, but they didn't make a vested effort to take care of his personal hygiene. When he was up and more aware of himself they were really nice to him but once he got bad, he had to move. There are people there under hospice care, but for some reason, it didn't work out for him.

Charles was not in and we waited 20 minutes for him. Another gentleman at the front desk showed me a room. This is an average facility but it is not close to Delray Beach.

Toured. Convenient location and clean facility. The rooms are a bit small. The lady we met with was informative and helpful. I think the price is a bit out of reach.

I just found this place very depressing. The care they provide is fine, but it just did not have a good atmosphere. They seem to keep many residents with much higher levels of care than most assisted living locations I looked at, which gave it more of a nursing home atmosphere. In the dining room many residents couldn't feed themselves, and were too out of it to be social, or just didn't leave their rooms often. They also seemed to have a high turnover for staff, too many new people rotating through so Mom couldn't really get to know anyone. They did try their best, but I decided to move my Mom elsewhere.

It feels different, has that sort of homey feel, and they do have a locked ward. They are known for their dementia care. It is usually full, and they have two different levels. I think if you had a serious person with Alzheimer's, it is definitely someplace that I would check out big time. They have a different director, and the place is really just OK. There is nothing that stands out as phenomenal, and the place is starting to look run down. The canopy on the patio is shredded. The seats were ripped, and they finally just took the cushions off. The place needs to be pressure washed. No one is taking really good care of the building, they are not putting the money into aesthetically fixing the place up. The quality of the room is fine, and the food is fine, but they used to have more family dinners and happy hours than they do now.

They don't have enough caregivers for the level of residents - they have residents at high levels of care and they could use more staff than they have. Cleanliness and friendliness is fine, but on the third floor there is never enough help. I think they do admit people with a high level of care, but they took "dementia care" off their board out front so now it just says "assisted living." It's the kind of place that if you have dementia, you might have to pay for a chaperone at lunch, and at different times to accompany you to different activities, if you want to go anywhere in the building. It is a very comfortable place, but is best if you still have some independence. The food isn't wonderful, and if you eat in the café it might not be hot. I have a limited experience here since my client has dementia.

They are under a new director, and he really had to get new staff and they just need a little more dicipline. They were losing personal belongings, and the few times I went there, the staff was not present. The last two weeks we were there they started to improve. Their staff pool, where they get the staff from is not as caring or as experienced as her new home. The management is good, The calandar was full but the activities weren't happening. The food is not that good.

Some things are okay but important things need work. It's an attractive place, clean and the people who work there are mostly caring and pleasant. They have a lot of activities including exercise, lectures, movies, music, self-help, outings, and are very creative with these. They offer a lot of services but getting them done in a timely fashion or at all is another thing. The communication between the whole staff is one of their biggest problem. They are overextended and have part-time or transient personnel, so a concern will not filter to everyone on the staff who has contact with the resident. There's an ala carte menu for personal care, medication, supervision, etc., but you may be paying for a service you never receive. If the resident refuses bathing or getting dressed, they may not get these grooming issues done. "We can't force the resident to take a shower," (or change their clothes or Depends, etc.) is something we have heard more than once. They have a variety of aides who come with all levels of competency and dedication, but most seem caring, if harried. The food is okay (not great), but the menu never changes, and is especially boring if one is on a restricted diet. They also don't want to assume responsibility for some diet issues and the resident may be expected to know what they should or shouldn't eat without assistance - difficult for someone who has any degree of mental confusion. The most serious issues involve lack of emergency response to an alert button worn by all residents which doubles as a call button for an aide. When the resident pushes their button, be it for a serious health emergency or because they just want help getting out of a chair, it's the same response time - when they get around to it. We timed it recently at 25 minutes and that's totally unacceptable. There is no 24 hour supervision of the front door and sometimes aides go out for a smoke at night and the front door is left unlocked. Very scary. A chat with the administrator revealed that we had "Unrealistic expectations," and it was suggested that if we weren't happy we could take our parent somewhere else. Really?! They will put the best face on when you go to visit and tour, but that doesn't mean that things will go perfectly for your relative. An opportunity to speak with the family members of other residents may be helpful in letting you know what to expect. We think this establishment is below the standard one would expect for competent care, especially given the high cost.

Kelly Roggo was very helpful, but her facility is too expensive.

The options for activities was very minimal. It was ok. It was smaller, the people were nice but it was more institutional feeling. It was clean and presented well, but was like a morgue half the time in the sense that there was very little activity going on, the residents kind of disappeared into their room except for mealtimes. As far as taking care of needs in a friendly, proffessional manor they do that.

My parents seem to be enjoying this place so far. It's clean and the people are friendly. We do wish there was a bit more privacy, the staff will enter rooms without knocking, sometimes early in the morning. We understand this is probably necessary for medicals reasons for some residents, but my parents would appreciate at least a knock first. My parents have also mentioned they wish the food was better.

This seems like a nice place, although we have had a fairly major problem. The staff have all been great, very friendly and helpful, and the head of the memory care unit was a very nice person. However a week after we moved my loved one in they fell, and had to go to the hospital. We know this isn't something that can be prevented without someone with them 24 hours a day. But then a week after she returned from the hospital she fell again, and we really feel like a closer eye should have been kept on her after the first fall.

The experience has not been good for us because within thirty days of moving her in they have decided that she needs a higher level of care. They are nice people and I like them. They were understanding and caring, but it just isn't working for us. They have all these add ons and the cost of care is very high. The hallways were very long so a resident at the end of the hall would have a long way to walk for the dining room. I liked the staff.

It was nice, but pretty much all independent living. They didn't have services available and my father-in-law wasn't able enough to live there.

There were a lot of places that were a lot more expensive, and location was a big factor for me because it's close, within a few blocks so I can walk there. The problems aren't necesarily chronic, but there have been a few. The cleanliness of the room prior to the move in was not really up to my standards. I kinda get the feeling that the place is understaffed and the cleaning woman doesn't get to every room every day. Sometimes I will get the vacuum that is right out in the hall and vacuum her room. The care is fine on a day to day basis but if she is sick or needs more attentive care it just seems understaffed. I feel like if her regular aide is there then things go well but if she is off, or on vacation then not so much. The food is good though and this has been working out for us.

We toured this location and were not impressed by what was offered for how much they were charging. The activities and rooms were not as nice as some that we looked at, and it was older than what we eventually selected.

It was nice, but they kept raising the rent constantly. They didn't pay that much attention to her. The food was average, but nothing that stood. She had her own room, but it wasn't so much like an apartment as it was just a room.

They were substantially more expensive than the one we chose and we couldn't get them to come up with a firm price. And they wouldn't give us something solid until they had a chance to see if they would need something extra after they moved in. I felt like they would just find ways to charge them.

We did a trial stay because my parents were strangely high functioning for having dementia and they really wanted to stay independent, but the community was concerned. I didn't want to put them in memory care because I didn't want them to feel like he was in prison, and they have additional services you can add if they need it. No one was communicating with me. When we got there it wasn't set up like they were going to do with the furniture and it took two or three days of a two week stay to get the phone and T.V. set up.

This was like a highrise. I was not impressed. It looks like a hotel, nothing was very open until you got past the desk and turned the corner and there was a living room type area that was not very big and kind of closed in. There weren't any big spaces. It was for more independent residents. The demographics were not a good fit and I felt it was too big for her to navigate.