MorningStar Senior Living

I am ranking this on using the memory care side of the facility. The facility that is not memory care is appealing which is what they sell you on. Experience on Memory care is what I am rating. The memory care area is way too large and the bedrooms are far from the main eating and gathering area. Each bedroom has to remain locked because residents wander and take things that don’t belong to them. If your mom/dad can carry a key and find there way back to their room great but most of them cannot. So using the bathroom or going back to their room is very difficult, not enough staff on that side to assist. If they are capable to join activities on the assisted living side they will take you there, if they have a concern of you wandering you do not go, totally understandable but activities for the memory care side is extremely limited. There really is no monitoring once the residents are put to bed on the memory care side. Unless you are requesting pop in night time checks they don’t happen. My mom was found on the floor many times in the morning when they came to get her dressed. There is a poor system for cameras but you pay additional for that and it doesn’t allow them to know instantly if they fell. It is not worth a self pay of close to[fee removed] per month to add additional a camera system which is useless. After my mom ended up falling several times and had to be transported to the hospital for review, her own doctor told us to find a smaller place for her. We did do that, I wish someone had suggested that right from the beginning. We moved her to a small set up with only 10 residents which not all of them our memory care, which was much better. We should have done that from the beginning, we were caught up in all the glitz of the Morning Star facility instead of quality of care, space, and feeling like family instead of corporate. I am sure the living assistance part is very nice just not memory care side. I was visiting every day trying to engage mom and saw a lot of the real hands on from the workers. Not enough workers for memory care. Don’t waste all that money on Memory Care, find a small home facility. My suggestion is if you think it is awesome, spend a few hours in the memory care unit. Watch, observe, what they are doing, take a walk like you are a resident trying to find your room or a bathroom and realize that no worker can even see you while you circle around that part of the facility looking for your room. They need cameras and more workers.

There were instances where staff called me instead of 911. I had to tell them to call. The meals themselves were wonderful. But they charged extra for things, like if mom didn't want to eat in dining room she was charged a fee. If I ate with mom they would charge her. So I stopped eating with my mom. I would recommend. Its a nice facility. One has to look past the polish though.

My stepfather fell on [date removed].At the ER he was diagonsed with a bilateral strain and ambulatory. When he returned to the community he was sore and expresssed some pain and discomfort. Since there wasn't a nurse on duty I had to give him his first dose of Tylenol. He was not given another dose by MS staff until after 24+ hours after returning and now screaming out in pain. The evening staff left him in bed without meals. He was now lying in bed in pain, shaking uncontrollably, and is so weak he can not speak. I attempted to communicate with the nurse and ED. I was provided no reassurance on the steps that were being taken to ensure his wellbeing. When I finally became so frustrated I told the nurse I was going to report my experience to the state. Her only response to me was, "go ahead". We moved out on [date removed]. My stepfather was so weak he had to be transported by AMR. He will never regain the strength to use is walker again. This could have been avoided if the nurse paid attention.

MS is basically a dorm for seniors with RAs on staff there to help when you ask them to (and can reach them); don't expect much more. They do dispense medication but family really needs to pay attention to make sure it is correct (confirm, reconfirm and then check what's actually in the cup) and to notice changes in health (weight gain/weight loss, wearing same clothes for consecutive days, room not being picked up, etc). The food is not good and it's deteriorated significantly over the past few months. I now bring in most of my dad's food in. I feel sorry for the ppl there without family to bring them good food every now and then. This is an easy fix but it's not happening. There has been a lot of turnover in staff lately and there is no transition, making it hard to know who to call for what or to know if the person you are giving instructions to will relay the message to the right person. They have activities, but it's up to the tenants to get out of their rooms and go (and not many do). For [fee removed] a month, I expect (at a minimum) meds to be correctly dispensed and the food to be tolerable. It's an overall disappointment but this is my first experience so I don't have anything to compare it to. Honestly, having now experienced it, I feel it's better to continue independent living with a full time caregiver vs moving them to MorningStar; at least then you know they are getting individual care.

Beautiful facility. It has management problems. There are some fantastic people. They are not ADA equipped for vision impaired They use QMAP people for meds. Not well educated, but they are following Colorado law. Just wished I knew

The business office is horrible and will not get back to you, the business office should get back to paying customers. They should offer more of a variety of activities. but the people there are the best.

We had a terrible experience with the MorningStar at Arrowhead community and have since moved both of our parents. I would NOT recommend them for anyone dealing with a male dementia/Alzheimer’s patient

My loved one was previously a resident at MorningStar at Arrowhead. I would never recommend this place to anybody. Everything that they tell you upfront is not what happens there and they don't really care about their residents. Only the ones that managed to take care of themselves. My grandma's bed and linens in her closet were covered in feces and so was she. Dried feces on a regular basis. I paid for shower services, which were never done. She was left her in her room every single day, they didn't even try to get her out. They brought her food to the room in Styrofoam. Her silverware went missing, even after I replaced it. Her clothes were never changed. They consistently yelled at her while she laid in bed, for pushing her call button too many times, even though she was in pain. All of this was caught on camera. My grandma lost so much weight and none of her clothes fit. They never had an activities director and didn't really have activities.

The food is very good, beautiful facility, my Mom really enjoys the chair yoga.

We had a wonderful tour of Morning Star and had a nice conversation with the coordinator. We were told an assessment was necessary and that we would be contacted on Sunday. We were all in! Sunday came and went with no call. Monday no call; my sister called and left a message. Still no call. After another person involved contacted them, my sister received a call late Monday afternoon. By that point we were very discouraged. We thought that if they couldn’t follow through with a phone call, what were the chances of her husband getting the immediate care he would require. It’s a very difficult and challenging decision to make placing a loved one in a facility. This wasn’t handled well.

We toured MorningStar Assisted Living and Memory Care of Littleton during our search for a Memory Care facility for our loved one. We decided to continue on with our search and to tour other facilities.

The care staff is amazing. I have seen meals that I would not feed a dog. Activities are almost non-existent, there is no thought or effort put into the activities. Watching YouTube is considered an activity. Instead of seeing what the residents are interested in, they just keep doing the same old things that take no effort. They keep raising the price and provide sub par food and activities. I have expressed my concerns several times and nothing changes, we are to the point where we will look into something else, my mom loves her care staff, but the rest is terrible.

Our family had an in person tour with MorningStar Senior Living of Parker and it was too expensive and they were not budging on the [fee removed] move in fee. IT also was not homey at all.

Improvements that this community could make is when tenant has empty oxygen tanks despite repeated attempts to correct this issue. Tenant had to sleep in soiled bedding told by staff that it was okay. Room smells bad because soiled adults diapers left in trash. Tenant told she must go to bed immediately after dinner. Tenant concerned with retaliation if she complained

My loved one lived in this facility and our experience was not good. The place is beautiful and gives a great first impression, but when it comes down to actual care of the residents it's not so great. There was so much miscommunication within the nursing staff and communication with the family could have improved also. The level of care that I ended up paying for was expensive, but I was assured that my loved one would get the care and assistance that she needed. However, she didn't get it. I was really disappointed with this facility. My tour was nice and it seemed like this facility was going to be a good place for my loved one. Things just didn't work out and we ended up moving our loved one to a different place. I have a couple of friends who had loved one's at this facility and also ended up moving them to a different place. From medication mix ups/not being given, to assistance for my loved one to get to and from the dining room (which they assured me several times that they would do and did not), to my loved one having a gouge in her forehead that I only knew about when I visited but was never notified of from the nursing staff....just not a good experience. I would not recommend this facility to family and friends. Again, the residents seemed overall happy, it's a nice atmosphere with a great mountain view, it's clean, the dining room is nice. But the care that is given to residents just isn't great, from our experience anyway.

The community itself is very clean and the administrative staff team are very friendly, whenever we do have questions or concerns and we bring it to their attention they are very responsive. However the care team (nurses, aids, med techs) the friendliness can be a hit or miss and at times it seems like they do not communicate with one another. Also the meals could be improved, our loved one says they are not that good and dry.

We feel stuck, she has a nice apartment, the care staff is amazing. She has made some friends so we hate to move her. Management does not seem to have the residents best interest at heart. The dining room and food is a total disaster. Activities are almost nothing.

My father was there recently and the staff turnover is abysmal. They cannot seem to keep staff more than a few months. It takes such special people to work with these clients, and they should be paid accordingly . The management is not friendly and is ugly to staff, which probably does not help. I would talk to staff about whether they like working somewhere before placing a loved one in any facility.

I am an occasional visitor of a friend who resides there. Her health has declined, she has lost weight, seems lethargic at all times. She is in a wheelchair when she was very capable upon the start. Now she is too weak to walk. Her room is dusty, stains on her carpet, smells of urine, she has had her wedding rings stolen- she never took them off...and replaced with a cheap ring. Her toiletries are her own responsibility, yet they are always taken. The center is impressive, however. Understaffed resulting in lack of care for those that need it. Some of the staff are enthusiastic lately, but they must be the contracted ones because of being short staffed. Some have been very lazy, on their cellphones and looking bored. I witnessed staff walking around just to get there shift over.

At that time, a lot of tours were virtual, including our tour at MorningStar. At the same time, another place we ended up choosing allowed in-person tours. Even through a virtual tour, I could see that MorningStar was an older facility and not as nice. The people leading the tour seemed like typical salespeople, like real estate agents that didn’t want to sell real estate anymore, using all the language that just made you feel like they’re trying to sell you something.