Summerset Senior Living - Rancho Cordova

My sister is at Summerset Senior Living and they are fabulous. They have gone out of their way to help us with our sister, who is early onset either Alzheimer's or FTD, they are not sure, but she is late stages. They have been marvelous and just wonderful. She is in memory care and it is not quite like the senior part, but she does have a nice room. The whole facility looks brand new, and it just really is a nice place. When I toured, lots of residents were out doing stuff, it was not like they were sitting around with nothing to do. They were out in groups doing activities, which is something you want. That was the perfect place for my sister. Especially being close to my mother, too, on top of it, it just worked out well. The location is awesome. She is in a private room and has a full bath. It is quite large. It is just one room, not like having a whole house where she came from, but it is still a big floor and lots of quiet areas you can go to outside of your room. It just seemed very nice. I cannot say enough good things about the staff. It has been very heart wrenching and they've been right there. They sent us videos, let us FaceTime, and anything to make it easier, not just on my sister but on us also. It has been good. My sister is a vegetarian, so she is not on the regular eating plan, and they've been very good about giving her plenty of options. The memory care is on a different floor, and there are alarms and locks. They were reasonable compared to all the other ones I have called, but none of them are reasonable, I mean when you think about the kind of money it requires to live in a place like that. We will run out of money eventually, but we will keep her there as long as we possibly can. A couple of things that we ruled this one is one, we could afford it, two, it was close to my mother who is 84, and the third thing, my sister played a national league softball and her team's name was the exact name as this building, Summerset. You would just not believe all the stuff they've done for us. I think it made it destiny. It felt like this was fate. We were meant to be there.

Memory care is on the second floor, behind locking elevator doors. The layout is inward-facing. Residents spend the bulk of their days in a day room, with only two small windows, placed high on the wall, to the outside. It's a dark, dingy, and alienating environment. Staff doesn't have time or willingness to engage in meaningful activities with residents; they make no effort to engage--the activities are much more an exercise in 'talking at', rather than any form of true, substantive engagement. The memory care staff is insufficiently trained in redirection of behaviors. The staff will also tend to go into their 'staff room', shut the door, and frequently leave all residents entirely unattended (on occasion, we had to spend as much as fifteen minutes--and go downstairs to reception--to get staff sent to assist our resident). The director is particularly tactless in her communication to family members, and has a tendency to call at all hours of the day and leave incoherent voicemails. We would not recommend this care facility to anyone. The rates for 'levels of care' are egregious, care poor, resident-to-staff ratios high, staff turnover high, training poor, the meals consist of white-bread sandwiches hauled up on a cart from downstairs, or rubbery pasta, and the environment is generally much more in keeping with a penal facility than anything suited for a senior loved one.

My mother-in-law is now staying at memory care at Summerset Senior Living - Rancho Cordova and it has been amazing so far. They take care of all her needs and they’ve been helpful in ensuring that she's eating correctly. They placed her in a place where she's comfortable and they're very catering. The staff is very attentive to her and they keep us in communication of any needs or changes. My mother-in-law is in a shared room, but currently she is the only occupant. They do music almost daily and activities to help remind them of day to day living functions and needs like going to the pharmacy, doctors, things that help trigger their memory. They do exercises in the main communal hall and they do outings as well. The price is expensive but they're very accommodating.