Merrill Gardens

Low priority part of the business for memory care. Dad was there 4 months and as a family of 8 adult children, we witnessed poor operations of this part of the business. Dirty rooms/bathrooms, poor food quality with long wait period serving especially on weekends at dinner. Questionable practices regarding staffing at night and weekends. Use of agency personal at those times or staff working double shifts. Many safety issues as staff was stretched at nights and weekends to support needs of residents. Will not go into detail in this review but know that the sale part and tour do not line up with the reality of what happens. Corporate decisions far removed from what is right for residents. Staff training minimal and was clearly an issue once on floor with residents.

The admin staff was more concerned with filling an empty bed than caring for my mom. They need to be more cognizant that new residents WILL BE disoriented and need more help than long term residents. This facility refused to provide that.

I rate it a zero. Memory care unit does not have enough caregivers. My husband is in a Brightstar Care Home group home now and is receiving wonderful care. He had many falls at Truewood. I saw many issues there with the patients. Also most of the people are not friendly. Food was terrible. I definitely do not recommend.

The staff was rude me not adjusted to the needs of the users refuse to do things that was very easily done. Put obstacles in places to make it hard for residence to move around and just plan a terrible place for any mother to be placed. I would not recommend this for anyone

They were terrible They stole my dad's news shoes. Took his cash and then charged me seven extra thousand dollars and he was there for 3 days.

1 on all. We had bad experience. They are NOT equipped or trained for memory care /dementia

My brother was ready to move in , flights were booked, hotel was booked, rental car was booked all left was to order furniture then I got a call saying they could not take my brother he needed to much care. My brother is doing amazing, he is self sufficient and making friends. He gets his meds twice a day and that’s all. I will say [name removed] was fantastic, she made you feel like moving into Merrill Gardens, they are lucky to have her.

Merrill Gardens Memory care- Staff on their phones most of the time and the activities were mostly watching a move not engaging. The rooms need to have standard basics (we were told we had to purchase blinds for the window). Asked what size they were and were handed a tape measure! If families need to provide they should have dimensions! Not a standard size and would have needed a ladder. Ridiculous. Many employees of Merrill Gardens (Monterey) call the director The wicked witch of the West and residents call her evil. I witnessed a public argument between an elderly resident and the director at the entrance of the facility that should have taken place in a more private area.

Very little compassion or empathy from an understaffed facility. I was disappointed with the treatment he received at Truewood by Merrill.

Friendliness of the staff would be a 0 if it went that low as long as the care services. The care givers were mean and unable or unwilling to provide even the minimum care. They on several occasions left my father soaked in urine and did not change the bedding the next day. They raised the cost on multiple occasions without any change to the care plan or any notice. He was injured and I found him bandaged and unbathed and no one could tell me what happened. He was afraid all the time. They retaliated when we did complain which made it much worse for him. I'm very upset that I didn't move him out much sooner. He was walking with a walker and had been living in independent living prior to the move to Gilroy. When he left he was wheelchair bound and had given up. I was afraid he would have died if he stayed there much longer. 3 months in a new facility and he's walking again to the dining room 3 times a day. He's hopeful for the future, thriving. Please stop referring Merrill. I don't want anyone else treated like my father was.

My mother stayed at the Glen Mills location from partway through February to partway through July of the current year. She chose to relocate to an apartment. As her POA, I can speak about the problems we faced. There were several errors on the billing statements. I'm currently consulting a lawyer regarding an overcharging incident. When I have tried to talk in person with the manager, he is out or otherwise unavailable. When I email him (as I did recently to provide the required 30-day departure notification), he does not respond or otherwise acknowledge receipt of important messages. From these encounters and the problems with the bill (double charges when my mother first arrived, extra charges for cable equipment that my mother didn't have in her room, and an overcharge during her departure), I can say without hesitation that the problems include overcharging residents, poor organization, and a lack of timely response (or no response at all).

After raising his rent to over double what we originally agreed upon, I moved him to another facility. Then, they charged him over $[removed] after he moved out. I've been trying to sort this out with [name removed], the General Manager. She won't return my phone calls or emails. I could go on and on about the myriad other problems with this place. If you care about your loved ones, DO NOT move them into any Truewood facility.

They kicked him out because staff and management didn't want to deal with his condition which wasn't bad at all. He had Lewy body dementia but at the time he was there he was fine. It hadn't progressed. Hope this helps it was a horrible experience for us with them not wanting to help or come up with solutions.

After almost 5 years at this facility, with many positive experiences on both the assisted living and memory care facilities. I can say how our experience ended is heartbreaking and not what I expected from management. My mom passed, and dad was moved to memory care. As his dementia progressed, rather quickly, he became wheelchair bound, non verbal and needed extra assistance moving to and from his bed. He continued to feed himself, and enjoyed his simple life. I was paying a large sum for his services, but was told, out of the blue, I needed to find a new home for my 96yr old, WWII Vet, dad. The contract nowhere says a 2-3 person assist is reason for discharge. On the Merrill Garden website it states. YOUR NEEDS MAY CHANGE OVERTIME, BUT WE BELIEVE YOUR HOME SHOULDNT HAVE TO. After talks with management, they tried to make this wrong a right, when the discussion for care should’ve been their first course of action, verses, you need to find a new place, lacking compassion.

Truewood did not work out. My mother fell out of her wheelchair chair and broke her hip. While she was in the hospital, Truewood would not take her back. They seemed very nice, but I don't think they were watching her well enough and that's why she fell. She also fell out of bed a few times.

Merrill Gardens was a horribly run place.

My husband was in memory care for over 2 years. There were some lovely caregivers, and an awesome woman who ran the unit (later fired!) but the corporate culture is awful. There's terrible communication with the manager of the whole facility, and they literally made it so I had to move husband when he was beginning the dying phase, after assuring me that they would continue to care for him. And the reason they gave was nothing that had been mentioned earlier or made sense for standard of care. I cannot recommend this place at all.

At the time I was living there, the manager and assistant manager picked favorites, and if something went wrong, they just said this was independent living. They didn't take responsibility of anything. There were several people with Alzhiemer/dementia and schizophrenia. It was very scary. I promised my son to give it one year. I did and then left. It is full of people in their 90s and only a handful under the age of 70. It should not be listed as Independent Living. Most of the people there should be in memory care or assisted living. It was completely making my life miserable. They're under new management and I'm still in contact with some of the residents. They are still unhappy. Most people are there because the family doesn't want to pay memory care or assisted living prices. The rent goes up 10% every year. Impossible!!

My mother was in the independent living, but was still supposed to check in daily. This was a reassurance to me as I live out of state.i called her daily at the same time. One day she didn’t answer, I wasn’t overly concerned as it took her awhile to get to her phone and I presumed she had checked in, on the second day she didn’t answer I was extremely worried. I called the front desk and asked if they had heard from my Mother, and please go check. The next thing a paramedic called and said she was unresponsive on the floor with a broken hip. After I had calmed down and she was taken to ICU I called to speak to the manager who admitted they hadn’t heard from her in two days and they were so sorry. They had a new desk clerk who neglected to do what she was supposed to. My mother laid on the floor for 2 days. Anyway my mother never fully recovered from this ordeal, ended up having to go to and passed away .very disappointed with this . My mother did like the food though

Unless you have unlimited resources, they present a nice shiny picture when you go in however, after your loved member is there they don’t do what they say they’re going to do and they double the bill and then claim it’s correct and don’t even explain themselves they just say pay it This has been a horrible seven months. since my mother arrived there she has been hospitalized no less than seven times. Meanwhile, she had not been hospitalized even once in the prior two years, my sister and myself who were the local family members assisting, have been severely adversely affected physically and financially, by this, and I myself at the moment and sitting in ICU, and just received a bill for $[removed] monthly rent instead of the [removed] without prior notice , so there you go unless you have unlimited resources and want to get ripped off don’t go to Merrill Gardens