Shepherd Hills Senior Care

Moved my 96 year old mother to Shepherd Hills, after she fell broke her hip and could not go back to Cascades, (where she had been living for 3 years). The caregivers are wonderful, they caught her UTI immediately on her admittance from a rehab facility, and got her on antibiotics immediately. Small amount of residents, feels like a family. Some of the caregivers do not speak English, please do not let this influence your decision, love shows through no matter what language you speak. These angles show love through the way they take care of my Mom, and speak to her with love and respect. My Mom will tell me "she is so sweet", Marya will paint my Mom's fingernails so she feels pretty. I knew the moment I stepped into the home, that Mom would be happy here, you can feel the love. My Mom loves to eat , always good food and snacks. I am kept informed on all aspects of my Mom's care, and family and friends are welcomed.

We just moved our mother from Cascades to Shepherd Hills due to mom moving into a dementia state rather rapidly. Before that happened, my mother had incontinence issues as well. Mom had her favorite caretakers, which became our favorite because mom spoke highly of them. Apart from those 3 caretakers that she could remember, I would have difficulty referring anyone to Cascades. Shepherd Hills is much more of a family scenario. You walk into a Beautiful Large living space which immediately makes me want to hang out and chat with the residents. Cascades had become dated in their décor with new elevators that were nice, BUT VERY slow. When I walk into Shepherd Hills, I'm greeted with a smile from a caretaker and "how are you". I couldn't get that at Cascades. When I walk into Shepherd Hills, it smells fresh and airy. I walk into Cascades and it immediately puts me in a bad mood because in my mothers apartment all I could smell was urine. When mom's dementia moved in rather quickly, Cascades promptly raised the price of the care she should have been receiving. The price increase was to help her with the toileting, remind her to eat and so on. If mom were being helped with her "personal needs", then why did it smell like urine every time I went into her apartment. And it WASN'T the cat box. I know that all senior care facilities are in need of good caretakers, but if you don't have the staff to take care of my mom properly, don't raise the rent for help she didn't get. Mom is VERY happy at Shepherd Hills. Since my mother basically forgot she could walk, she became very isolated in her apartment at Cascades. At Shepherd Hills, mom doesn't have to get on an elevator and navigate her way to the kitchen. She just has to walk out her bedroom door and everyone is right there. The staff seem to ACTUALLY care about the residents. They aren't just a paycheck for them. The facility is beautiful, classy, great food and about $2000 less a month than what was being paid previously. We are allowed to come in and use the community kitchen to bake bread, cookies, etc and have our mom and other residents right there to sit and talk, or join in if they prefer. The difference in my mother's attitude is night and day!! Though she doesn't remember much these days, her response the very next morning when she woke up at Shepherd Hills was "I LOVE my new room!!" And that's good enough for me. Thank you Shepherd Hills for giving us kids a bright spot back to our mother!

While the place is absolutely gorgeous, it doesn’t stack up to what the owner promised. The owner stated there would be home-cooked meals. These meals consisted of turkey sandwiches and chips. And the chips were with every meal. Canned soup. Hardly ever any vegetables or fruit. Frozen at best. The beds are super uncomfortable! And they do not automatically rise and lower. They have to actually turn the bed over in order to move the legs of the bed to get it to a certain height. Also there is usually only one person on shift at a time. And then at night, my father was unable to communicate with the staff due to a language barrier. The employee only spoke Spanish. I think when you do the tour, the owner is very accommodating. Lots of promises and leaves you with high expectations of the facility. Also, one of the residents that was moving in brought in her cat. So if you’re allergic to cats, this could be a huge issue! They stated the cat would stay in the residences room, but highly unlikely. They are also accommodating to power wheelchairs, but there is not enough room in the actual bathrooms in the rooms to get the power wheelchair and to move around. So you need to utilize the community bathroom. On the website it states that an RN will do a care plan. But my dad never did see an RN. I think this facility could be great, with a lot of improvements. Once you get past all the bling and upgrades of the building, you see the real care.