Brookdale College Square

My father is a current resident at Emeritus at Overland Park and has resided there for the past year and a half. He is in the later stages of dementia. My siblings and I were very concerned with finding excellent care for him and I must say we hit the jackpot. First and foremost, I must say that they have an outstanding staff, in all areas. Everyone there does their job with excellence. They are all skilled in their positions, caring, considerate, attentive, friendly and compassionate. I do not know what their hiring process is but they know what they are doing. The facility itself is always clean and well maintained with excellent security in place. There is an abundance of secure, nicely landscaped, outdoor space with plenty of seating and a covered patio for the residents who are able to go outside on nice days. The cooks do a marvelous job and the meals are nutritious, appealing and plentiful. Activities are offered for all levels of participation and are enjoyed by all, with attentive activity directors who interact with the residents as though they were their own family. Actually, the entire staff treats the residents as though they were family. I cannot give this facility a high enough rating. This is a tough disease. It is so hard to watch your loved one slowly decline and slip away from you with each passing day. We try to make the best of each day we have left with our dad and Emeritus has helped us so much on this journey. I can leave dad each day fully confident that he is getting the best care possible, in a skilled, caring, loving environment where he is treated every minute with the dignity he deserves.

My husband stayed at Emeritus for respite care. It was pretty good. The staff seem to be very aware of my husband and how he was. However, he did had a pretty drastic decline while he was there. He was put into hospice status and it was thought that he didn't have very long at all to live because he was becoming very weak very quickly. They were keeping him in a wheelchair most of the time, and not encouraging him to walk. He's very unstable on his feet which vary from time to time.

My grandfather has dementia and this facility is designed to care for people with dementia or Alzheimer's. I feel that he is well cared for here and that the design of this facility is appropriate for someone with this condition. Each time I have visited him, I have noticed that he is clean and well groomed, and that his room and the other rooms in the facility are clean and safe. The setup of the facility provides a community feel for the residents in that each is placed in one of four communities of people with whom they dine and share a community room. The facility feels secure and safe while still allowing the residents room to move about indoors and out. The staff is numerous and seems attentive to the needs of the residents. Many staff members are often found assisting with meals and group activities. I am pleased with the care that my grandfather receives here.

When I finally realized I could l no longer keep my husband with alzheimer's safe, I started touring facilities and the poor guy went along with me not knowing he was looking at his future home. I toured so many facilties. Some very nice, some not so nice. Some that talked a good story some that just seemed to warehouse. Then I toured Emeritus. It was like coming home and I think Jim - my husband knew it. It is a small facility and the calm and caring feeling when we entered was immediate. Their motto is "Our Family is commited to Yours" and I truly believe that. ALL the staff know everyone's name - will stop what they are doing and will interact with a resident - have a chat - even when those chats don't make a lot of sense, take a walk, play a game, sing a song, whatever it takes to make that resident's day a little better at that time. The directors at Emeritus work so hard to keep residents, families and caregivers included in all aspects that may impact their loved ones. The nurses and caregivers have joined my husband's journey through this terrible disease and have displayed such kindness and carecaring. He doesn't know what is happening but he feels safe with them and I feel safe putting his welfare in their hands. I am so thankful that I have this wonderful place and this new found family.

This facility is tucked away on a quiet cul-de-sac in the busy suburb of Overland Park, so it is quiet, but still close to shopping and dining and other activities. The grounds are lovely, designed as a big, fenced-in square. The inner courtyards have a lot of walking paths and plenty of raised planter beds, but I was a little disappointed to hear that the residents do not have entirely free access. They may go out whenever they want, but they have to have the door unlocked by staff. I was told this was to make sure they knew if someone was out there and could check on them periodically. The interior of the facility is a bit dated. There's been some attempt at decorating but my impression was that it was a surface treatment which didn't entirely hide some of the more institutional aspects such as the hospital-blue paint on the walls. The residents' rooms felt quite small to me, which my guide said was intentional. There's room for a single bed, dresser, and night-table. In addition, there are only a couple of joined couple's rooms and most couples have separate single rooms. The rooms are organised in four separate hallways which helps memory care patients by assuring a smaller, consistent group of people with whom to socialise. My guide was very personable, as were her staff members as far as I saw. However, their approach to memory care was a little different than I've heard described at some other facilities. Rather than trying to orient the residents to today, they try to "join their journey," for example in 1945 if that's where the resident is mentally. This would certainly be an approach to research more fully before choosing Court at Overland Park, but in all other respects I would recommend this facility to a loved one.