Paradise Village Retirement Community

We were introduced to Paradise Village by a friend of mine, whose mother was moving into the community. It truly is a resort-​setting community — they have everything, it seems! When we came to visit, they pampered us with mani-​pedis and a wonderful dinner, as well as comping a visitor suite. Bobi Thomas is warm and wonderful, and gave us several tours. The entire staff is that way. We moved my mom down from Los Angeles, and she moved into a lovely apartment in Independent living.
The apartments are light and airy, and each one has a balcony. We loved to sit there and drink coffee in the morning!
My mom’s Alzheimer’s progressed and we needed to move her to the assisted living side. The apartments there are smaller, but there is no need to cook as all meals are included. The menu is varied and the food was delicious. The activities director, Minnie, is energetic and involved with all of the residents. It is impossible to be bored with all of the fun things to do. There was a even a dance the first night she was there!
The caregivers are competent and patient and can handle just about anything! We got to know many of them, and it was wonderful to see how well they took care of my mom. A special thank you to Amanda, the head nurse, the amazing Evana, Nicole the maintenance director, the wait staff and Karen, Bob the Director of Independent Living, who helped amazingly when it became necessary to move my mom into Assisted Living, and gives great hugs; Rosanna and Karina and Yasmin who helped me hang onto my sanity; Sylvia and Melanie and Nithi and Carol who ran the front desks; and every single one of the staff who I missed because I can’t remember all the names.
Unfortunately,. we had to move my mom to a memory care facility, as her Alzheimer’s progressed to the point that we couldn’t leave her at Paradise Village. But even then, Bobi Thomas was there for us, giving us recommendations and options. An very very special thank you to Bobi. I wouldn’t have made it through without you.

My mother lives at Paradise in assisted living. I have been generally happy with the facility. Here are a few things I am quite unhappy with: (1) This is run by Seventh Day Adventists, which results in some definite negatives. No wine is allowed. At her last facility, the residents got to celebrate special occasions with a little cheap wine. It helped them feel festive and was certainly never abused. They don’t allow ham, which happens to be my Mom’s favorite food. She doesn’t care for their menu, and her declining weight is becoming a major health issue. Their strange religious beliefs are directly affecting my mother’s health, and why forbid a beloved food to a sweet old lady anyway? The ramped, heated, salt-​water pool that is such an attraction at the gym is closed on Saturdays, again because of religious beliefs that the residents themselves don’t share. (2) They are notorious for not returning phone calls. Recently, one of the staff members told me that they provide flu shots. The person I called to confirm this with never did call me back, and it took over a week before someone else told me this is not true. (3) Their communications with family are horrendous. They just raised my mother’s monthly bill $ 900.00, with no discussion nor notice. This was to reflect her standard of care which seems to have no quantifiable standard. The number just seems to float. Last month it was a «2», and suddenly now it is at «5.» The person I complained to about this, Shantelle, felt this was a perfectly acceptable way of treating people. I really disagree with Shantelle on that. They raised the rent $ 300 a month at the same time. She literally has no idea why I might be upset at a sudden $ 1,200 per month increase in my mother’s bill. I insisted on receiving in writing something which quantifies how they arrive at that floating number for Standard of Care, and she sent me a chart with some numbers on it that don’t include a single word nor explanation on how to interpret it. That extra $ 900 per month may literally be random and unjustified for all I know.

My dad was a resident here for just shy of a year before we moved him close to us on the east coast. Paradise Village is an excellent facility in all respects.
The community itself is 500 units spread on a National City campus adjacent to Paradise Valley Hospital. Very convenient to medical care and to amenities in the surrounding area. It is a quiet campus surrounded mostly by residential neighborhoods.
Their assisted living building is about 75 units and the rest of the campus is for independent living. There is a central café in the main building in which the independent living people get 30 meals a month and this is also where you can get ice cream and espresso and bakery items. A nice place to especially lunch which is open to the public.
Assisted living has their own kitchen and dining area with very generous dining hours and a chef that will feed whomever shows up outside of meal hours. They have daily specials and an «anytime menu» which is fantastic, consisting of four pages of items ranging from steak to pasta to salads to sandwiches and many options for each. Amazing.
Upstairs on the 2d floor is an «anytime room» equipped with refrigerator, soft drink, coffee and flavored water machines, fresh fruit, a popcorn wagon, microwave oven and a hot dog cart. The refrigerator is restocked 6 times every 24 hours with sandwiches, deserts, entrees like pasta and stew with items dated and kept current. What a deal!
The staff of med-​techs, caregivers, nurses, housekeeping and administration is wonderful and caring. The workers are assigned to one of the four floors and they know the residents by-​name. And they frequently check-​in on the residents at every shift change and with excuses, like emptying the trash or seeing if the bathroom needs picking up, etc.
Residents are required to wear one of those help-​me buttons and each of the caregivers carries a walkies-​talkie that will broadcast, by name and room number who needs assistance. So your relative or friend is nearly immediately accommodated. Very impressive.
They offer regular bus transportation for medical appointments every day, just book when you have a date and time. There are restaurant trips, shopping trips and even a weekly trip to the Navy commissary for the retired military people.
Am shocked at Paul M’s situation as we never came even close to any services needed or requested, in fact, just the opposite. Roberto and his crew went out of their way to accommodate requests for shelving, phone service/​connection and the phones are answered at the central building ²⁴⁄₇ and during the day at the assisted living and central desks.
Might be an attitude issue here?
The care my 95 yr old dad received was way above our expectations and responsiveness was just part of the culture. They care and care about being good at caring.
He is now in a facility close by which is good, but nothing as great as Paradise Village. We regret that we were not living closer so he could have stayed there, but trying to be responsive living 2500 miles away was not optimal.
Paradise Village is by far the best assisted living facility in the South Bay. And we looked at all of them before deciding on Paradise Village.

Read the reviews that are not currently recommended as they tell the correct story. We also recently moved our mother here. The facilities are visually wonderful, but management is subpar. There have been things we have needed and it is hopelessly difficult to get an answer. At times they don’t answer the phone and if they do, the person is very poorly trained and has never provided an answer. They always claim to take a message for someone, but never return a call. I’m now onto 3 weeks without an answer about trying to get my mother a phone. After making corporate offices aware of the problem, they referred it to the onsite executive director, who was very disappointing. After again failing to return phone calls, we finally spoke and he seemed far more concerned about denying my concerns than addressing any problem. He promised a response in 2 days to the phone issue. Not only did he never respond, but he did take the time instead to go and personally intimidate my mother and caregiver over our complaints. I would not recommend this facility until they change management.

This business has a great marketing team but I am concerned for many of the other residents. The business advertises full care yet my mother of 82 years has been not receiving her care. She ended up with a bed sore since the caregivers were not moving her properly. Department of Social Services are also looking into this issue. As many others have stated the management and owners promise a lot but do not follow through.
I completely agree that there is no one in the evening or on the weekend on site with any authority or experience in the event of an emergency.

I recently moved my mother from a assisted living facility in la Mesa to Paradise Village, and it was such a great choice. Everybody at Paradise Village takes such great care of my mom! She has a great apartment with a fabulous view of downtown. The food is soooo good. We often eat at the Ceders dining room as well as the dining room at the Plaza. My mother has made many friends and the staff treat her like family. There seems to be many activities going on at all times during the day and the facility is always clean and well maintained. I would like to say a special shout out to Carol, Nicole, Christian and his staff and of course Laura in marketing, they have made this transition from my mom’s old facilty to this one so smooth. Thanks again to everbody at Paradise Village. I am the loudest cheerleader !

I’m writing this review as a family member of a resident at Paradise Village.
I’m really impressed with the grounds: always clean, well lit, and decorated nicely. The food at their restaurant is SO GOOD. Good portions and a healthy menu.
My grandmother uses the gym for physical therapy and is loving it. She feels better now than she has in a long time!
There’s a real theatre in the main building where they have movies and concerts. There always seems to be groups of people utilizing it — cool.
I do have a couple complaints. It took them a long time to sort out some administrative issues when my grandmother moved in. I’ll chalk it up to learning experiences, as PV had just opened.
Also, their hours for the amenities aren’t convenient for busy people. The jacuzzi/​pool is only open during the day. No dip in the hot tub after dinner!