Sierra Vista

Kenneth

My dad has moved into Sierra Vista. It's a really caring, loving home environment. It feels like a little home. It's for dementia care. They only have 24 residents. They have shared rooms and private rooms. My dad is in a private room. They have a common area where they can watch TV. It's a pretty big common area, and then they have a big dining area where they can all go sit and dine together. The dining area is like you would be in the kitchen at home. They have a nurse's station where the nurse gives them the medicine. Their bedrooms are all up to the side of the halls. The staff is very friendly and helpful. I like the fact they're not just residents. They say that they're elders, as like a respect for older person, and I like that. I didn't hear that term very much at the other ones, and that's what I really liked about it. The staff ratio to the elders is very low. So it's really where they can really focus on the people and the people staying there. They do music for them. They actually have a lady that comes in and does arts and crafts. She does pottery and painting with them and helps them out. They have different activities, like dancing and stuff. They don't let them stay in bed. They get them up out of bed and get them all in a common area so they can interact with each other. They actually have live animals there so they can see the animals and interact with the outside and get sunshine and stuff like that.

Susan Allerby

18 months later is still hurts that we were not allowed to stay with our dying mother because of the ridiculous visiting hours (9-12 and 1-5). We were promised those hours would be loosened once our mother was in hospice...but the director assured us our mother was not going to die, and that she was never wrong, and so we were not allowed to stay by her bedside the last week of her life. The director, it turns out, was wrong. If you want unfettered access to your loved one, like to spend evenings with them, tuck them in bed, treat it like a home for you and them, STAY AWAY from this place. If you value truly nutritional food for your elder, STAY AWAY...standard fare is chicken mcnuggets and canned corn, grilled cheese sandwiches, whatever can be produced as cheaply as possible. One of the few pleasures still left to incapacitated elders is denied them, the eating of good food (which at the price tag of tenancy one would expect to be top-notch, gourmet!). The year and a half my mother was there, they went through three activities directors, with very long gaps in between hires during which the chief entertainment was watching other elders snooze on the couches. The BEST Activities Director that the elders adored was fired mysteriously...seems he didn't tow the party line. Dressed up in a beautiful place with animals to be seen through the windows, my experience of this was a pretty Waiting Room For Death. The one redeeming factor was the excellent, loving care by the staff. Unfortunately, many didn't speak English, which made for further confusion and lessening of socialization for the elders. There are many good-hearted people working here, the staff take good care physically of the elders, but unfortunately the Profit Motive rules and the elders, who are mostly not able to complain due to dementia, are charged exorbitant fees and short-changed when it comes to truly life-quality-enhancing services: unobstructed family time, quality, engaging activities, and healthy, good food.