Clarendale of Addison

Donna

I have a friend who lives there at Clarendale of Addison in the memory unit, and it's very nice. She's in her 90s and she's a lot forgetful, but she's very happy there. They have good food, she said. The staff was very nice. I spent more time with the staff in memory care. They had a common area and separate bedrooms. They had a room where they could do puzzles. It was very clean. We were in her room mostly, but we also sat out at the dinner table when they were serving supper. The dining area looked very nice both in the memory care and the general one. Her room was a nice size. It seemed very spacious.

Provider Response

C.H.

I was a resident at Clarendale of Addison. It started to be a very positive experience. But through the months that I lived there, it had gotten more and more negative. We needed good food, we needed socialization, and all of those things have gone downhill rapidly. So, I would not recommend it to anyone. The building looked good, but there were quite a number of emergencies, lots of maintenance happening, and thermostats that didn't work. The 2-bedroom unit was very small. My bedroom was able to hold my twin bed and my computer table, and that was it. The closets were very small. All of my off-season clothes had to be stored in suitcases. The food is from Sysco. It's not tasty. They'll throw it in a styrofoam container for you to take it when there are not enough servers, and there are never enough servers. So, people stand in line to get food in styrofoam boxes to take upstairs. People don't attend activities. This facility was not attending to specific senior needs.

Provider Response

Shari

We chose Clarendale of Addison for my father because of the professionalism of the salesman, the beauty of the place, and most importantly, the location. It's 5 minutes from my house. Eric has been wonderful. He has answered all of my and my father's questions and he's been very responsive and has helped out in many ways, even going to measure one of the units my dad was interested in to make sure his furniture would fit. It's a one-bedroom, has a full kitchen, a den, and a good-sized bathroom with a washer and dryer, and pantry. They have different apartment types, but he's choosing the one with the den because he wants to have a desk. They have everything. They have an exercise room, a barber, a bar, and an activities room. They have all kinds of game rooms, a lovely restaurant, and a snack bar. It looks like a luxury hotel when you walk in. It's beautiful.

Provider Response

Beverly

Clarendale of Addison was very nice. They were brand new and a little smaller. They overlooked pretty much just parking lots and cement, but facilities were close by. They had an exercise room. They certainly had a dining room, which was lovely. They had a cafe in between. They had a flooding problem that they were fixing. It was brand new and looked nice.

Provider Response

Cindy Concerned

If You Have Somewhere Else to Go To, Go There Before Clarendale of Addison We moved our Dad into the memory care unit at Clarendale in late March 2021. Our initial experience was positive. The Director of Sales was very helpful and responsive as we went through the procedures up to and through move-in day. Communications after this time deteriorated. Before moving our Dad to Clarendale, he lived in his home with 24/7 caregivers and was independently mobile, ate 3 meals a day, and weighed 168 pounds (he is 6 feet tall). When he was weighed in May he had lost 20 pounds. This was a cause of alarm and the nurse suggested he start drinking Ensure and we agreed. We were under the impression that Ensure was provided by Clarendale as we were not told we were supposed to provide it. Two weeks later my sister asked the nurse if our Dad was drinking the Ensure – that is when we found out we needed to provide it, which we did. The staff had difficulty keeping his dentures secured, thus making it hard for him to eat. When asked to supply more denture adhesive, my sister did. When it was still difficult for him to eat, the staff suggested that they remove his dentures while he ate. We agreed. It was during that time that our Dad’s dentures went missing. When my sister visited our Dad on Father’s Day she noticed that he didn't have his dentures in. She asked, and the response was they thought she had taken the dentures, which she didn't. His dentures were missing and the staff could not find them or determine what happened to them. Later in July the Executive Director stated that we never provided the proper adhesive and they could not be responsible for lost items. One time it was suggested that our Dad threw them out, but he was unable to get to a garbage can by himself. Per the Executive Director, as a courtesy and an extension of goodwill, she was willing to credit his billing statement $200. His new replacement dentures cost $4000. By this time our Dad had lost more weight and was unable to walk. During another visit when our Dad was being helped out of his chair to be put in his wheelchair, his pants fell off of him because of the extreme weight loss. By June 29 he weighed 136 pounds. On July 9, my sister was called about an added medicine and was asked if anyone had called to tell her that our Dad had fallen 2 days earlier. No one had called. By July 15, my sister received a phone call from a doctor, who sees residents at Clarendale, saying our Dad needed to be put into Hospice, as he only had about 6 months to live. It wasn’t until then that Clarendale “sounded the alarm” and told us he should be in Hospice and that they could not care for him anymore unless we hired a one-on-one. We were shocked that no one had suggested some action earlier to perhaps stop the weight loss. Our Dad seemed to be slowly dying from starvation. His condition was so much different in March. Throughout this time, it was very difficult to get our calls answered. We called the Director of Health Services several times, with no response until we followed up. Overall the communication after admission was poor. We ended up getting a second medical opinion and moved our Dad out of Clarendale (at 122 pounds) to the VA, then into skilled nursing. His blood work upon admission at the VA showed that one of his medications was low/not at the therapeutic level it should have been. When My sister moved his belongings out of Clarendale, she found his clothes and bedding had not been washed. He has been at the new facility for about a month. He can now feed himself, is more alert, and has even gained a few pounds. We highly recommend that people think twice about sending their loved one to Clarendale of Addison, especially if they have dementia and are unable to speak up for themselves.

Provider Response

Megan E

After a poor experience in their first independent living community, my in-laws were on the hunt for their “forever home”. After scouring the Western Suburbs for that perfect fit, they landed at Clarendale of Addison. From the moment we walked into this facility we were warmly greeted and met with nothing but patience when asking a variety of questions about life at Clarendale. We signed on the dotted line the next day and planned for an early April 2020 move in. And then, COVID. Transparently, we were panicked. We had already given 60 day move out notice at their current residence, signed a lease with Clarendale and put a deposit down with a moving company. Sensing our worry, Clarendale stepped in and assured us they would be flexible with move in date and, when move in day arrived, they had an organized and, most importantly, SAFE procedure to get my in-laws settled. Since their arrival, Clarendale has been nothing but accommodating - providing breakfast free of charge when under stay at home orders, delivering both lunch and dinner to residents, having a weekly activity in which staff go door to door with a nacho bar, happy hour, sundae bar, hawaiian themed treats, etc, opening the gym for resident use with safety protocols in place...the list goes on and on. The food is INCREDIBLE with a rotating menu of specials and variety of options to choose from; there was an entire week that my mother-in-law lamented over Facetime to us about having to choose between steak and lobster (she couldn’t get both because “the portions are too big”). They have also been incredibly communicative with resident’s families from sharing weekly updates to having an open line of communication with Clarendale’s Executive Director. Their handling of the pandemic has been extraordinary considering the circumstances; always communicating developments and changes quickly to residents, and being proactive in imposing safety measures, including free weekly testing for all residents. Suffice it to say, my in-laws have found their “forever home”. HIGHLY RECOMMEND, Clarendale of Addison.