Sonida Senior Living

Benton House is a lovely building and the marketing promises outstanding services. However, the facility is understaffed and management expects staff members to perform multiple duties. The same staff who provides assistance to residents serves all meals and clears after. They also clean apartments and do the laundry. They are stretched far too thin. Consequently, the apartments are not clean and my husband’s bed linens were washed once in the six weeks that he was there. During my husband’s stay, his hearing aids were lost, the batteries for the hearing aids were lost, and his medications were not monitored properly. The posted menus, which look elegant and sound delicious, are not what is served. The staff at Benton House are very nice but the lean staffing does not provide the services promised.

The staff is very nice here but in independent living, the cost is much higher than what is listed here. The dinner fare is way below par with lukewarm food and choices that include a sandwich for dinner! ( entree ) The unappetizing dinners makes me want to look at other living options after having lived here for 15 mo. Apartments are nice but the grounds have a a very limited area for walking.

My husband was evaluated and put into assisted living, which was very nice. Nice room, good meals, helpful staff. But less than a week after signing the lease, they said he needed the memory care unit and moved him. Cost was 40% more, dull atmosphere, poor meals, dirty rooms, very little care, locked wing with very little access to fresh air. Administration was nice until you really needed help, then they disappeared.

It is painful to see staff cleaning & vacuuming while residents need help

These prices are not even close to what they charge, much higher. My mother-in-law died at this fac due to a fall and wasn;t even found for many hrs after. This happened in July 2019. Just saying we made a bad decision.

First of all, the facility is beautiful, and for independent living it might be an option. The real problem here is nursing care for those who need assisted living. Medication errors were made for our loved one as well as several others we talked to. Average time from hitting a call button to response was 30 minutes. Please check these things if you go to this facility. We are so happy we pulled our family member out of there !!!!

I will say that initially I was very excited for my dad to get settled in as he couldn't go back home due to safety issues. Nice facility. Activities Director always friendly. Lots of daily activities and enrichment. Marketing Director always went out of her way and genuinely cared. Intake coordinator very knowledgeable. The main issue I have is with the nursing staff and aides. Some you can tell really love their job while others snub you or have an attitude when you ask a question or need something. At one point response time was 45 minutes. Before my dad left, we waited 20 minutes before someone came with his meds. The reasoning....the head of nursing was out and there was really no one to supervise them. Sorry, but if your staff is worth their weight in salt, it shouldn't matter who is there and who isn't. When we brought in a home health aide, I wanted to have a discussion about who was responsible for what so expectations were clear. That never happened. Waterford is a great place for grandma/grandpa to stay because s/he doesn't want to worry about mowing the lawn and maintain a house. This is not the place for someone who needs more intensive care and frequent check-ins. The circumstances surrounding my dad's fall are sketchy at best. It might sound over the top, but I would seriously suggest putting in a monitoring system to keep nursing staff honest and held accountable if you are at all concerned that your loved one is receiving the level of care you and they were promised and are paying for. Do your research. Don't be fooled by pretty and fancy. Visit other facilities so you have a point of reference. Watch the employees. Are they happy? Watch the residents. Do they look content and well cared for? Understand how facilities get their star ratings. Ask about resident to nurse ratio. DO YOUR RESEARCH! HAVE A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT YOUR LOVED ONE'S NEEDS ARE. PLAN FOR THE FUTURE. IF THEY HAVE A TERMINAL ILLNESS, MAKE SURE THEIR NEEDS ARE TRULY ABLE TO BE COVERED. IF NOT, PLAN AHEAD AND BE PREPARED!

My aunt stays there now but will be moving. Some of the staff is not friendly. Although there are others who are great but on e will ruin an experience. The food has no choices and is not very appealing.

Since Wellington took over from Keystone Woods, there does not seem to be enough staff in the mornings to help the residence who require assistance get ready for the day. We pay for 1 1/2 hours of assistance but receive only enough time to run in and give meds (which is skipped every 2 1/2 - 3 weeks). No excuse is good enough to skip meds that can prevent strokes, etc. , I believe too many of the med techs are lazy and don't care. One nurse who works mornings is extremely lazy and uncaring but the others are excellent. They can't, however, seem to get their staff to do what is required which tells me they need to replace those who do not do their jobs properly and the staff who do an excellent job, should be given bonuses. Also, the management does not return calls except for nursing. An awful lot needs to be changed.

Mom was in the assisted living part of the Waterford. There are not enough caregivers to meet the needs of the residents. One caregiver per hall is not enough. Also even though they empty diaper pails on aschedule the place reeks of pee. It burns your eyes as you turn down the hall. My mom couldn’t/wouldn’t go to meals in the dining room. Therefore they only gave her whatever was leftover and cold. And she had to call to remind them to bring food. Served in a styrofoam container not a plate. Unacceptable!! Nice caregivers doing the best they could except for the evening shift and the food problem.

My mom has lived at the Plains since they opened. At first, everything was pretty darned great, including the food. In fact, she raved about the food at first. And the various policies. Over the years it has gotten to the point of being terrible. They can't seem to find anyone who knows much about actual cooking. It's pretty sad considering the price of a two bed/two bath apartment is about $3,500 per month! They closed down Millie's Cafe. They no longer allow residents to save up credits towards future meals that they might want to invite friends or family there for and they give residents a whopping $3.00 or $3.50 "credit" off their rent instead. The breakfasts are included in the rent, but you can buy your own cereal at the store for a lot less. Pretty sad. Unfortunately, there is little to no competition in the Oneonta area so it's easy for them to get away with providing so little of quality to their residents. Two of the ladies at the front desk are outstanding.

The place is overrated. Once in a while you will get a good meal or when you need assistance after you have push your button will a RA come. Not enough help in all areas, short staffed all the time. And we, the residents pay the price. So do the staff that shows up ALL the time and work for the No shows or call outs. Can't keep the good ones!

Nice decor and well-maintained grounds. Our experience was a lack of personalized care, forgetting to write down requests to help with shower before a doctor's appointment, staff who do their minimal transactions and talk about how they can't wait to go home, and an unwillingness to take the time and learn how to deal with residents with severe depression. Moved after almost a year, and the new, smaller assisted living facility has staff who really connect and care - day and night difference! Family member is much happier having left Wyoming Springs.

Only take your loved one here if they are content to sit in a chair or sleep all day. I saw very little ongoing interaction with the residents. The staff sit in a room and observe the residents through a glass wall. As if they were in a prison. They say there are activities all day for the residence to keep their mind active. This is not true. They have a calendar of events but these are frequently canceled. The say say they there a courtyard for the residents to enjoy and even garden and plant flowers.. But it is almost always locked. When my mother would ask to go outside they refused. Telling her that the didn’t have the staff to accompany her. They would give my mother a sleeping pill at 7 pm and put her to bed when the sun was still up. When I ask them to do that later in the evening the response was “I will put it in her chart” but nothing changed. When I ask that when there was actually an activity for them to let her know and show her where to go, I again got “ we’ll put it in her chart. But nothing changed. My mother constantly complained of being bored. Eventually she started having attention seeking behaviors. Instead of working with her to keep her entertained they wanted her medicated. I wrote an email to the management about my concerns regarding her care , that they were not providing what we were promised before we moved Mom there. The response was they would look into it and get back to me. They never did. They gave medication one day to work . When it didn’t they insisted on sending her to a psychiatric facility where her care was even worse. She will be buried next week. She only lived at Riverbend for 2 months.

I would never let a loved one live there there is no security and is not safe.

Please beware that Assisted Living at this place is NOT the same as the senior living building. If your loved one needs real Assisted Living do NOT put them in the wrong Amberleigh facility or buy the sales pitch that they are the same thing. If you are transferring, the old place can and will refuse to discharge your loved one into Amberleigh independent living. They were very happy to let us find out the hard way.

Facility looked great, but was not a fit what we were looking for. My mother needs assistance and escort services, however is was suggested that she go outside and across the street on her own with no escort to smoke if she desired. This seems [Removed] and dangerous, and give me serious concern on their care practices.

Did not like the location. Is a three story facility and looks more like a hospital. Entered the reception area and was greeted warmly but did not have a fresh scent and cozy feeling to the place. First impression was I would not prefer this place based on the other options. Did not schedule a tour.

I toured this community with a friend of mine and it was a horrible experience. The director was not giving us her full attention at all and we kept getting interrupted. The pricing was way over budget. They had no information to give us. And they had no rooms available and just overall NOT prepared for a good tour. Needless to say we chose another place.

I toured Rose Arbor while looking for living options for my father, and I was not impressed overall. I felt that the community was dreary and too much like a nursing home. I wanted to move my father into a community that would be comfortable and would give him lots of opportunities to be enriched and to keep busy, and I just didn’t feel comfortable moving him here.