San Jose Gardens Alzheimer's Special Care Center

My husband was at San Jose Gardens Alzheimer's Special Care Center for only a couple of weeks. The problem was they were short-staffed. They had staff that wasn't well trained and then he fell a couple of times in which they failed to call. We could see that it was not a good placement for him. They tried to have activities, but they just didn't have enough staff. The layout wasn't as nice as the others. The hallways were longer. The director was very nice, but she was having some health problems and I worried about what was going to happen when she went out for surgery with things going on.

I like San Jose Gardens Alzheimer's Special Care Center because it's small, and sometimes less is best when it comes to caring. It's also clean, nice, has very polite people, and it's small enough that you should be able to know everybody. Right now, they are pretty limited to what you can do. They're trying to protect the residents from the virus, which is another positive thing, because they don't automatically just let you do whatever you want to do. We are actually looking to place my mom in this community, only because they are a complete memory care facility. It might be a better fit because that's what they do, and their care is more focused.

My father is in Arbor Terrace San Jose now. He couldn't have better care over there. They're wonderful. They're very attentive to all the people. They try to get to know all the nuances of whatever they're dealing with as far as disabilities go. They work with the people to get them involved as much as they can. They're also always having spur-of-the moment things to do to engage them. They're conscious about how they handle each person. There is memory care for people who are not advanced with their Alzheimer's or dementia. It is a big square of a building with a huge courtyard in the middle. Residents might be walking up and down the halls, engage in sing-a-long, crafts or maybe take bus rides somewhere. Their food is not what I would cook at home, but it is fairly good. They have the big meal in the middle of the day. The rooms are very nice. They come in once a week and clean them. The amenities are very well kept, very nice and very well thought out. They have somebody come in and check on my father, but the person that comes in and checks, checks on other people as well. My father had gotten up and tried to go to the bathroom by himself, which wasn't very successful. So they're going to put an alarm on his bed so that doesn't happen again. If he does start to get up, the nurse on the hall will page the lady or buzz her and she'll get to his room right away. They're a little pricey and out of our range but it is certainly very good service.

The food at Arbor Terrace San Jose is very good and home-cooked. This facility is only memory care, and it's brand-new. I liked the number of workers to the number of patients. It's only one floor, and all the food is cooked from scratch. They seem to really care about my father and the patients.