Merrill Gardens

There is only one nurse and med tech for the entire community. The RN on staff is usually in their office during the time I visit my loved one. It is a nice place, but if you have someone that has medical needs, I struggle to see how that would be managed by the community. If your loved one would need medical assistance the family will need to pay for an agency to come in for your loved one. The community works hard at the activities with the residents, and this is great for my loved one. The community will do light housekeeping and laundry for the residents. The building is beautiful.

My mom went from total independence to assisted living in one months time. Needless to say that is a lot for her to give up all at once. She spent one month in a facility located in the town her home was in while we looked for a new place in Eugene to get her closer to family. A lady at the temporary residence recommend MG to mom and thank goodness she did. It was not on my list of places to visit and ended up being the one that we selected. They worked with us on many levels to pull all of the pieces together and get mom moved in. Right from the beginning mom's comments were "I feel so comfortable here", "I can't believe this has felt like the right place from the very beginning" and "everyone here is so nice and very willing to help me". We have been very lucky that an emotional and hectic process was made easier by all of the employees.

Truewood is a beautiful building in a pleasant setting of trees and hills, has well appointed furnishings and the staff is very friendly. The quality of meals is greatly improved according to my mother and a new chef is onboard. I recently had lunch Veterans Day where BBQ chicken and mashed potatoes were served along with a nice green salad, veges, and nice selection of desserts and drinks. Fourth of July lunch included very tender bbq spareribs, fresh corn, baked beans, green salad, and apple pie. (cottage cheese and fruit, Cole slaw and jello were options also). Truewood (formerly Bay Park) is now back on track with tastier meals, shuttle service, entertainment and excursions, i.e: The Rosie Homefront and John Muir National Parks and California’s first capital in Benicia. My mother says the best thing about the facility is the friendships you make, having meals prepared for you and housecleaning. My one suggestion would be keeping up with cleaning of stains on carpeting.

It has been pretty good. They are having some staffing issues so are not super consistent with level of care though.

Our family had an in person tour and it was a really nice tour experience that staff were all very helpful with answering all the questions we had

We like Merrill Gardens....there were a couple of issues with getting our loved ones meds straight, etc...original fee was [amount removed] per month understanding there would be additional fees for additional care. We ended up landing on ~[amount removed] per month. After a couple days they informed us our loved one was taking too much care and we had to hire additional care (on their approval) for additional 35.00 an hour to get our loved one acclimated to their routine. No compensation given and yet we were paying for additional attention they did not have to give.

If it were up to me, I actually would have preferred Merrill Gardens at Columbia for my mother. The facility is newer and very nice. They also had a lot of big windows that let in a ton of natural light which is something we were looking for. We did not choose this facility due to the location as well as the fact that they only had a studio available and we needed something bigger. Overall it looked like a great place that I would recommend to others.

The activities are different in Memory Care than in Assisted Living. In Memory Care, the weekends are really boring. They don't do anything, and there doesn't seem to be enough staff, at least when I'm there. But the care there in Memory Care is excellent. However, in the facility the administrative / management seems to be a bit scatterbrained. And you have to be on top of it to get things taken care of.

Merrill Gardens at Sheldon Park has an excellent memory care unit from what I was able to see. I like that they have a transitional care program for those who are in between levels of care. The reason we did not choose this facility was because the location was a little more isolated and it had a bit more of an institutional feel to it, but it is a perfectly acceptable facility and we are keeping them in mind.

Merrill Gardens was definitely our second choice. I thought it was beautiful and very nice. My loved one could not find a configuration of apartment that he liked. And they also didn’t have availability for a 2-bedroom at t the time. But it was wonderful. I also liked that their care services were a la carte since he's relatively independent.

I would highlight the friendly staff and friendly people that live there. They do offer weekly housekeeping services, and transpiration to appointments and outings (at a cost). They don't offer a bunch of activities, but there is a good staff to resident ratio. My loved one likes the food; and overall I would recommend Merrill Gardens at Santa Monica to other people.

We were able to have an in person tour with Merrill Gardens it was nice but the memory care area was pretty small and just did not seem to offer everything we were looking for.

I have found the lady in charge of the caregivers to be vey responsive when I have gone to her with any issues she immediately addresses it. One of the things that I think we feel a little frustrated about is that a lot of the caregivers do not speak very good English so it is hard to communicate. I wish that the caregivers would interact with my mother a little bit more and get to know her. I do think that they could offer more activities, my mother loves to play scrabble. They did promise more than they have delivered so far. This is the 3rd facility she has been since October and so far I am much happier with Truewood by Merrill. I would recommend them to others looking.

Our loved one is happy with Truewood by Merrill, it is affordable to her. We do think for everything they offer the value is excellent. Our loved one does enjoy the activities going on - the level of activities is good for her. She enjoys paying card games and socializing with the other residents during meal times. Sometimes our loved one says the meal portions are just to big. Based on the experience we have had so far with this community we would recommend them to other families.

Overall our families experience has been good with a few minor issues here and there. They do keep the community very clean, they wash their linens and clothing on a regular basis and help keep their rooms clean. Our loved one does say the meals are good. They do have a lot of in house activities within the memory care unit - the activities director always has different things going on for them.

Merrill Gardens is a very nice and new facility. The only reason we did not go with them was because the eating area was on the basement level of the facility. My loved one has mobility issues which would have made that a real challenge for him to use the stairs or elevator each day to go and eat.

This was a good community. They had large kitchens in the apartments but the living areas were smaller. The common areas were very nice and so with the dining room. It felt like a hotel.

This was a good community. They wanted too much for the medication management care and it was more than anticipated.

The ground floor has been remodeled and has a fresh look. The top floor has not been remodeled and because of that it does not look as clean or fresh as the ground floor. I am not using the care services at this time but the people that are there always speak and talk no matter if they work for you or not. There was a change of ownership right before we moved in and the staff think that there is a plan to redo the top floor also. The top floor does need to be done and the dining room could use it also. The location is great and has a very rural beautiful setting and the convenience to shopping is only about five minutes away which makes it easier for the residents. The general manager is really great with her team, she runs a tight ship and is great with what she does, the sales manager and the daily care staff, and maintenance it wonderful also and have all been there for us promptly.

I liked the community but with the family decision we were swayed to another direction with another community. This was my top choice and they seemed to be very involved at this community. However, the community was bigger and two stories and I was not sure how my loved one would have handled this with having to use a walker.