Merrill Gardens

Staff very helpful. the bottom line is the cost.

nice setting, a little far from Berkeley, very nice untits, particularly the studio alcove, not as many activities and trips as Monarch, limited transportation - 4 days/wk, fair diversity, laundry on two of the four floors; overall 3.5

Merrill Gardens is pretty expensive, and it was brand new when we first looked at it so it had some issues. Some of the staff was fine, it really just depended on who you talked to that day. This community is more independent living so there weren't to many care services to be provided. The activities were very good, they have library groups that my mother really enjoyed, they would also go out on little outings. You would pay one overall fee for the food per month, and from what we understand its more of a restaurant setting where you could eat anytime between 7AM-7PM. The was special menu items you could order, as well as a more simple menu. However, they would constantly run out of food or coffee.

The facility is nice and clean. The activity’s are often and seem like fun. The food is okay. If you have to move a loved one to memory care, be prepared to do everything yourself, and have little communication on there end. The higher up seems to have a, “on your own “ mentality towards the family. Ask lots and lots of questions. Our family member wasn’t welcomed into the memory care community. Several balls were dropped in communication. When confronted the head leadership blamed the family for expected them to hold our hands through this process. The only communication and preparation we had was the sales team pushing us to memory care, and paper work and payment. There also seems to be a lack of communication between leadership and staff. I wished we could have expected better. Maybe they will fix these issues. I hope so.

Beautiful Community, a ton of amenities, especially the underground parking. We were not impress with the lack of staff at this community. I understand it's an independent community, but we would be spending close to $6K for the two of us. We could easily spend that at another community with more and services. The resident handbook and the sales person talks a great game, but the misleading of information is a joke. The sales person, he told us about all of the services that The Summit was offering when we put a deposit down early and of course none, NONE of them have been delivery yet. After this COVID19 is over, we are definitely looking to move out as soon as possible. This community is a bait and switch.

Merrill Gardens has great potential. Administration and staff is very kind and caring. Food service needs better administrative supervision. Cafeteria staff would benefit from regular training in caring for elderly.

My parents have lived at Merrill Gardens for the past few years. Staffing is always a problem. Chef quits regularly and any good staff leaves for better paying jobs. Can't keep a general manager. Food is horrible. If you need any help with daily living, they charge even more. Very expensive and rent is always going up. They need to pay a decent wage and try to keep staffing consistent. I do not recommend this place.

We toured this community and it wasn't a good experience, in fact, it made me a little nervous in regards to thinking that all communities were going to be like this. The place was clean however it was very depressing no activities being done the residents were sitting around in what looked to be the dining area. There was nothing on the tables the community just had no personality to it. As you were walking around you couldn't help but notice a smell that was not pleasant. The staff was a little pushy trying to get us to commit to a lease and as we were walking around we didn't see a lot of staffing.

This place is pretty good!

I visited my friends in their apartment and was given a tour by them. Except for the high cost, I was favorably impressed until we had lunch. The salad bar was fresh, but very limited. The entrees, however, were almost inedible. Fish tasted old and unpleasant. The ribs were burned and tough and left uneaten. Friends said they had a new chef who was trained at Cordon Blue, I believe. If so, he must have graduated at the bottom of his class...or he falsified his resume. Desert was good, but I am sure it was purchased from elsewhere.. This is an expensive place. No excuse for poor food. I'll pass.

Not the best of care.

They seem to be a little understaffed even though they have the "required minimum" if anyone is sick or needs extra help there isn't really anyone "extra" to give them attention. We have had to move our Mom because she needed a little extra help getting settled (she was slapping her legs and yelling No!) and they felt it was disruptive to other residents. We know that if there would have been at least one "extra" person that could have gone to her and comforted her she would have settled down. She is really not disruptive to other residents (per our observations) she just needed a little extra attention at certain times and there weren't enough staff to help make that happen. She was given 3 weeks to acclimate - since we've never been through such a thing before we don't know if this was a "normal" time period for her to settle. We looked to their expertise and were told they had not ever dealt with such behavior and couldn't give advice. That was hard to believe since we personally know two other families with dementia parents who have exhibited the same types of frustration behavior. We don't feel like they were much help with advice upon move-in or with what to expect. We got the standard answer of "everyone is different" and when our mom started having her frustrations the staff were saying she was fine and getting better but the administration was saying that she was a problem and we would probably have to move her. At 5 weeks in they seemed to be short staffed due to illness and that is when we were given 30 days to find a new place for Mom. The truth is we think she was settling quite well and when she was upset if she was given a hug and distracted she would calm right down and her "episodes" were generally first thing in the morning when she was frustrated with getting dressed and whenever she was asked a question that she couldn't answer. I would think that experts in the field of memory care would understand that frustration from someone who can't even remember their own name. I have to say that if you have a family member who is cheerful and easy in all ways or docile and not hard to take care of then Willow Park is a great facility but if you have any issues of any kind this is probably not a wise choice. I make this observation by spending many hours per week at the facility with my mom and observing the other residents and their interactions with staff. They are wonderful caring people - they just don't have much time for any individual attention beyond bathing, dressing, feeding... Hope this helps

Although, my mother has started her rent as of March 1st, she has not as yet moved in. It would not be a fair evaluation at this point. She has gone to Fig Garden for several meals, but she still needs to move furniture into her living space and as yet has not even spent the night. She has felt welcomed and included into the circle of table mates. Perhaps another month she will be able to haved moved in and can offer an opinion.

It’s so new. We went and the staff was so new. It was all young people and they were just all scatter brained. Mom did not want to take a chance with them because it was just a young, inexperienced staff.

I've been here for [date removed]. It doesn't seem well managed. 7 top tier employees left. And they hired questionable people, who also quit. There isn't any continuity. On my floor there are 4 empty rooms. So no one is wanting to move in. And many are leaving. On the upside, [name removed]in activities, is always planning things for enrichment. And chef Adam does very good with the budget constraints. And he cares about the people. Again on the minus side, they don't vet the incoming guests. Once they had to hire armed security to follow one guy. And they replaced him with someone equally disturbed. Police escorted both out. My point being, I question the safety here.

I think the Assisted Living area at Merrill Gardens is well-suited for many people, but I cannot recommend the Memory Care unit. The staff there was not helpful in resolving issues with our loved one, and we often felt the responsibility was placed on the family rather than being addressed by the team. We ultimately moved to another facility where the level of care has been excellent, with noticeably more staff and nurses available per resident.

They're a little snobbish specially the staff members I was treated really bad so I left found a much better place. I'm happier.

The property is in need of constant repairs. The pool roof caved in while my mom was there and the elevator quits regularly. The balconies are in need of repair. The front facade cannot be cleaned. The current Mgr is disrespectful to the residents and their families.

There has been a lot of employee turnover, so they have been short staffed pretty much the whole time [name removed] has been there. I would not recommend Merrill Gardens at Willow Grove at this time.

My loved ones moved out of Merrill Gardens [date removed] ago to a private home. They were very unhappy with Merrill Gardens management. Serious negative experience with general manager and senior management overall, but much more positive experience with kitchen and other support staff. Many concerns for example senior management refused to provide basic. Meals were hit or miss. We understand that overall they were probably better than many other places but for the $, ?? Our main concern was not having low sodium options. The games and other silly activities were fine for those who like that but intellectual activities, such as book club and community discussion. Too expensive not to have better service/care from management.