Emeritus at Brea

My Mother has been at Emeritus /​Brookdale for a year. I visit her several times a week and have nothing but good things to say about the care and staff at the Brea facility. They truly care for my mother as though they are family. They take a personal interest in every resident, I see it first hand every time I visit. The only complaint my mother has had is their food could be improved. I have eaten at the facility and feel the food is fine, you just have to take into consideration most of the residents are most likely on low sodium diets.
In reading the poor reviews I might make a suggestion. This is an assisted living facility, not a skilled nursing facility. If your love-​one just needs help with daily tasks such as bathing, going to the bathroom, help to and from social events (which they have many) and the dinning room this is the PERFECT place. I visited 5 facilities prior to moving my mother, this one was by far the best.

After my father passes away on May 18, 2014, (she was admitted in August 2014 — February 2015) my brother and I were faced with, «how do we take care of mom?». She has louie body dementia and wonders when shes alone and needs assistance walking and standing as she has a hard time with balance. We went to visit Brookdale/​Emeritus and we really liked the esthetics of the facility. So, we made the decision to move her in — what a nightmare!!! First they put her in to the assisted living area (which clearly she was unable to manage, the dr diagnosis stated her disease). After a week, we moved her to the memory care… that’s when the craziness began! We would visit her everyday and everyday I received a phone call stating she fell out of bed and was laying in her own saliva, had a skin tears, was anxious… those happened on a daily basis. As time went by… I received a call saying she fell (my mom was not to be walking by herself as the facility made that clear and so did we) and her head hit the railing and the wall, she knocked out her front tooth and her face was bloody and bruised, as she received trauma to her forehead and nose and had 2 black eyes. When I asked the administrator what happened she said the care giver left my moms side to get someone out of their room. I mentioned that my mom is not able to walk or stand without someone by her side. Rosa said it was only for a moment… This was not ok! Once we healed her wounds and they knew we were watching, things seemed to be ok. Until about 2 weeks after that accident she was standing in her room with a caregiver getting dressed and she fell back and hit the back of her head on the night stand, leaving a huge gash that required 5 staples to close up the wound. From that moment on, I was all for moving her, but we gave it another try. Keep in mind the calls of her skin tears and falling or sliding out of bed kept coming. They started to medicate with anxiety meds which left her wheelchair bound for their convenience. My mom was going away, lost a lot of weight, lifeless, drooling, couldn’t walk due to being sedate and not stimulated. She was put on hospice (for extra eyes and hands they said, but it was to make their job easier). Rosa wanted US to hire in our own care giver to stay with my mom all night to make sure she doesn’t fall out of bed (for those of you searching, this is to be done by the facility — that’s why we were paying big $$ for them). We couldn’t afford another $ 2,000.00 + a month, as we were paying $ 6,000.00 for the facility — so a total of $ 8,000.00. So we waited it out as long as we could. Mom was given a few months to live according to the hospice team — and she looked horrible. I would come to visit at lunch and there would be caregivers folding napkins while the residence where eating lunch — why the napkins needed attention at lunch when the residence clearly needed it more… this should have been done with an awake night staff — careless. My mom sat at a table where the staff hand fed the residence (this should NOT be done, staff should be explaining or guiding but not feeding), they had 1 caregiver feeding 3 people at the same time (THE FOOD IS AWEFUL BY THE WAY– WOULDNT FEED MY DOG WITH IT). A few days later I received a phone call saying that my mom was choking and was given the Heimlich Maneuver, this is extremely dangerous for the elderly. That was the last straw! I knew mom needed better care and felt guilty for keeping her there as long as we did. So, I we pulled her out and placed her in another home. What a change! shes walking again, feeding herself, talking and has color and life back in her cute little face. My experience has put me on a path of helping people never to have this kind of «lack» of care again. I have taken my RCFE classes and have passed the test to help place families and give them hope that there are good places out there for mom and dad and its not all about the $$$ the facility makes but the CARE… So please if you love your family stay away from this place and put your money at a place that truly cares

After a couple of years I am moving my father out of this facility and into hopefully a better one soon. The problems with the facility are:
1. They don’t hold their staff to a high professional standard. I’ve seen the staff walking around taking copious smoke breaks, goofing off, always on a cell phone and they aren’t attentive to the needs of the residents. Some of the staff have multi colored hair, and look like they fell face first into a tackle box with all the facial piercings which to me tell me they aren’t all that serious about a job. There’s a few good staff members here of course but it seems more bad ones are filling the ranks. I also don’t know how many times I’ve called to talk with the staff or directors and left a message only to never hear back again from these people.
2. I found out that once again my father who is diabetic hadn’t had his insulin or blood sugar checked. The medical technicians here are a real joke, they cant call when medicine is running low and so many times I’ve had to jump through hoops to get meds for my father. I’ve seen techs just giving pills out like tic tacs BARE HANDED at lunch and dinner times. They sometimes have little attitudes like it’s not my job to do this. Well, guess what people… You are taking care of lives, even if they are old and towards the end. Get over your selfish attitudes and care for once maybe you’ll find out it’s nice to go above and beyond for people.

Im an employee here at Emeritus at brea now the proud member of the Brookdale Family… This is a Senior Living Facility. We take care of the elderly to the best thay we can.

Excellent facility. Put my mother in law here for a couple weeks before having to move her into hospice care. Looking for a place like this for a loved one is never easy! My mother in law (god love her) is very high maintenance but the staff, amenities, other residents and even the food made her stay enjoyable considering the unfortunate circumstances. I would highly recommend giving this place a look if you find yourself in such a situation.

Nice senior living place.