Independent Living Community in Contra Costa County, California

Andrea M

I would not recommend La Casa Verde in Walnut Creek based on my family’s experience. My grandfather stayed there for about two weeks, and the owner—who is also one of the caregivers—was extremely rude and unprofessional when I tried to ask questions about his care. As a family member advocating for my grandfather, I expected basic communication and compassion, but instead I was met with hostility. During one visit, I noticed a scratch on my grandfather. When I asked about it, the owner said she didn’t know how it happened. My grandfather told me that she had been rough with him. While I cannot say the scratch was intentional, it was concerning that it had not been properly addressed or communicated to me. The overall experience made me feel that my grandfather was not being treated with the level of care, patience, and respect that elderly residents deserve. Because of these issues, we removed him from the facility after only two weeks. Families place a lot of trust in caregivers when they leave loved ones in their care. Unfortunately, our experience here did not meet those expectations.

Mark

I moved my wife to Stonebrook Healthcare Center so far, I'm very, very impressed. They answer their phones after 3 rings and sometimes sooner. They pass you over to the station area where my wife is and they pick up, and the nurses have been just awesome over there. I don’t care if they're from America, Philippines or from a Hispanic country; they're all equally as nice. At the other place I didn't get that, I got a lot of frosty attitude from the nurses whether they're registered nurses or LVN. So, this place here has a good staff person that makes sure these people understand what this Covid stuff floating around us is. We can't get in there and see our loved one so they do have to step up and that's just the fact, if they don't then people like me will probably break the doors down to get in and see my wife. We can do window visits everyday if we want. I went out bought a baby monitor so we could talk through the window, I bought her own tablet so we could communicate via vid chat whenever we want. They have all their patients in their own rooms regardless because they don't want a Covid spread of any kind. They're very cautious but she has the bed by the window so I can walk up from the parking lot and go right to her window and talk with her as long as the nurse could turn on the baby monitor. As far as looking at the room, I don't think I've ever seen a hospital room or a care facility that had matching furniture, but it's very nicely furnished. The carpet is obviously commercial grade and it looks like they just put fresh carpet in. I don't even call it carpet I call it soft floor because they need that for a wheel chairs over, and of course they can't have a fancy carpet. They won't even let me go in the lobby in the front of the building because that's how strict they are, and that's fine, I respect that. As far as cleanliness on the place, visually it looks very clean. They have a nice courtyard I went by that the other day just to check the place out and it's well-kept and well landscaped. Cleanliness appears to be there, they practice it on the exterior, and the rooms appear to be clean and even my wife looks like she's been taken care of. They've given her more bed baths and eventually they'll get her up and start taking her to the shower. She even looks healthier. Medicare was gonna stop coverage for my wife, so I appealed with the help of a lady from Stonebrook. She gave me information and I did the right thing and spoke with the Medicare facilitator. She's not eating; she still got an intravenous tube so they're feeding her through a nutrient bag. It's a lot cleaner, a lot nicer, and more of an independent living lifestyle for her like having care around her and not really just her care but somebody is there for emergencies and stuff.

C.P.

I'm living in Carlton Senior Living Concord. Everything's fine, they serve breakfast and dinner, but you have to make your own lunch, and on Sunday they only have brunch. It's in great condition, it's clean, it's an older building, but it's well kept. They have bingo and they have a happy hour where they go around and pass out to people sodas, drinks, or snacks.

Carol

My husband has been in the Windsor Manor Rehabilitation Center. I haven't been allowed to get in the building, so I don't know anything about the inside of the building. One nice thing that I know that they do is that they arrange for FaceTime phone calls and you can get an appointment to talk to your loved one that way. He doesn't talk a lot, so I don't hear much about anything else. The only thing you'd see on FaceTime is he's sitting up in his bed. The bed is elevated at the head of the bed. All I really see is just his top half. There is a bed that elevates and is adjustable. I've only had one other call about that, and I'm hoping they get a lot more information this afternoon. I would like to have a little more, like twice a week instead of just once a week. They called me to tell me that he had fallen out of bed or rolled out of bed three times in two weeks. His bed is fairly low to the ground. They've made it as low as possible, and they have put other mattresses on either side of the bed so that he's not gonna hit the floor when he falls and rolls. He gets out of bed because he wants to, and I'm sure he's been told not to call for help, but he doesn't.

Roger

I have moved in; it is really good. The staff is good. My apartment is beautiful. It's up against the hill, and so my view there is to the east and I see rolling hills of the Pinole, a really good view. The food is not great, but it is good enough.