My sister's a resident of Sunrise of West Essex. We are not happy where she is. I have been trying for 3 hours today to even get to talk to her on the phone and have not succeeded. I spoke with the head nurse of their facility, and I tried to speak to the one that's on the floor, but that person has not returned my call for 2 hours now. Did not return it from yesterday either, for that matter, and she got COVID in the facility. I pay for a personal caregiver to come in every day and work with her because she's getting no mental exercises. They're not doing any therapy of any kind, and she's just sitting like a bump on a log watching TV most of the time. Now and then, she joins their sing along and that's it as far as I can tell, and from what they've said. All of them seem nice when you do the tour, but their rooms are small. I was told that she would go into a two-bedroom. After a month of being in the studio, they haven't moved her. She's still in the studio, and I can't bring her furniture in until she has more room somewhere. She's in memory care. They wouldn't put her in assisted and everything. She's going downhill, not uphill, because she's doing absolutely nothing except once in a blue moon. They can't make her go to any of these activities, but they haven't been able to get her to voluntarily go to any activities in memory care. They will not take her upstairs, and I've asked several times for them to take her up to the assisted living exercises. A staff member would have to go with her, and they say they're short-staffed, so she's getting no exercise. If she sits on a chair and just moves her arms, that's not exercise. It's one room, and it has a twin bed against a wall so that it doesn't take up as much room. It has a chair next to a nightstand, and a little table next to the windows. It does have a dresser against the wall that faces her bed, a sink, a refrigerator, and a bathroom. As you walk into the unit, there's a table and two chairs. Now, I had to rent all that furniture for $300. That's a bed, a nightstand, and two chairs in the room. Then two fold-up type chairs next to the table where she could sit down, or somebody could sit down to eat something. There is a closet, of course. But it's one square room basically, with a bathroom. They just finished replacing some carpeting in the lobby area, which was hideous. The new carpeting isn't much better, it's ugly as can be. The furniture looks pretty old. It has a lot of nicks and so forth, scraped-off areas, and all that. That's what I'm paying for the $300 a month, for her to have those few pieces of cheap furniture. My sister's furniture has to be brought up from Florida, and I can't bring it up until I have a good place for her because this is not going to handle any of her furniture except the bed, a couple of chairs, and a small dresser. For the first several weeks that she was there, they were using paper plates and plastic forks, spoons, and knives. If a spoon was missing and you needed it for ice cream or Jell-O or something, you'd have to ask for it. Many times they did not bring all three to the table for everybody, and they were using paper plates and cups even for several weeks. Now they're starting to use real silverware and real plates and so forth. They said their dishwasher wasn't working when she first moved in. I started complaining, and that's when they got their dishwasher fixed. I don't know if anybody else was complaining, but I was, and I'm not paying $10,000 for her to have plastic and paper unless it's a harmful thing to her. Otherwise, she should be in a room with somebody feeding her. She was out in the area where they had served the food. It's also the area where they have their activities. There is a little separate area for the food. There is no dining room or anything like that, it's all part of this one area. They don't take them for walks unless maybe the resident says, "Will you take me for a walk?" They've been short-staffed ever since I put her in November to the point that they don't even answer the phones. It's not the phone in the room, it's the phone in their office, which is right across from my sister's room. She's in between a bathroom and a closet, and then immediately across from her is the office for the unit. Some of the staff are helpful, but they are not in charge. I did taste one of her meals and it was bland. It had no flavor, and I didn't like it. But at least my sister eats some of the food. One thing good about them is that they've got somebody that sits at a desk away from the front door. The front door is locked, both going in and coming out. You cannot get out without the one at the desk letting you out, and you cannot come in without the same thing happening.

My mother has been a resident of Sunrise a few years now. We looked into a lot of facilities. The price of care facilities can be high but I found sunrise to be the most economical of the quality facilities. The price is reasonable a d the service is excellent. I would encourage anyone looking for a facility for their love ones to consider Sunrise