Aspen Ridge Lodge

Perfect place for retirement. Highly recommended!

Aspen Ridge in Los Alamos has really gone downhill. My mother has been living in Aspen Ridge Assisted Living Center in Los Alamos for over 5 years and it was pretty good until the last year. During the COVID lockdown she was moved down to the dementia unit. I wasn't able to help because of COVID restrictions. The director assured me that they would move down my mother’s furniture, pictures and things to make it feel like home. Many times over the next several months the director continued to tell me that had happened. However, when I was finally able to go in seven months later, only a few items of clothing had been moved; and the clothing, cards, and other personal items of the previous inhabitant had never been removed. My mother had none of her shoes, socks, bras, underwear; none of her own furniture or personal items to let her know it was her room. Her name was never put on the nameplate on the door. And everywhere she looked, there was another person's stuff. My mother had been telling me on the phone every day that she didn't have a room at Aspen Ridge, that she was just using someone else's room; but I had thought it was just the dementia talking. When I went in, I realized she was right. When I talked to the director, she assured me they would fix it right away (she didn't offer any explanation for why this hadn't been done for the last 7 months). However, after five days, still nothing had been done, so I had to get the state ombudsperson to make the director allow me into the facility so I could move my mother’s things myself. Multiple times in the next few days I was shocked to find that my mother had not had any briefs on, and she had soiled herself. In addition, there were dried feces smeared into her bedspread. I was told the staff often didn't put the residents in briefs to save money. Indeed, there are were no Depends in her bathroom; the caregiver had to go into another area to get some. It seems appalling to me that my mother was not given her underwear and pads (which she was managing fine before being put into this unit) or Depends and had to live like an animal in her own urine and feces. There have been 3 similar instances in the 5 times that I was allowed in to see my mother. My mother’s previous room had been left unlocked for the last 7 months; it had been significantly ransacked and the room had flooded. Much of her clothing was missing. Her pictures had been taken down and left on the floor, which seemed odd since they had let me know that the room had been flooding. Also, her notebooks and other personal effects had been piled on the floor of her closet, again strange since the room was flooding. Many of her possessions were ruined. When I reported this to management, there was retribution: the director would not allow my mother out of the facility to visit her doctor and refused to give her the necessary tests so that I could move her to another facility. I decided that I needed to get her out of the facility as soon as possible before things got any worse. Another disturbing fact is that my mother lost 11 pounds in 16 months. Since we had not had the semiannual reviews of my mother’s condition for probably more than a year, and I was not allowed in to the facility, I had no idea she was doing so badly. In addition, the facility is dirty, especially the bathroom, and there is a sharp, jagged hole in the floor of the shower. There is no hand sanitizer for the residents or staff in the Memory Unit. I would not suggest anyone move into Aspen Ridge unless they are completely able to take care of themselves, or have family members who can check on them several times a week.

My dad has been living there for a couple of years now and is very happy. The staff is friendly and everything seems clean and well cared for. As seems to be the case with all the assisted living centers we checked out the prices are high, but so far they haven't gotten outrageous. There are a couple of really nice walking trails and exercise facilities. Update - With the clamp down to protect the residents from COVID 19 things have gone down hill fast. They had the residents restricted to their rooms at all times. If that sounds like jail to you, you would be right on. However in jail you are still allowed exercise periods and for the most part are not in solitary confinement. As you would expect with these conditions the mental and physical health of the residents dropped like a rock. We had to take my dad out of this facility. The majority of these restrictions were mandated by the governors office. I don't know if there was anything that Aspen Ridge could have done differently, but the bottom line is that this is no longer a good place for your loved ones to be.

My mother-in-law is doing a short recovery stay at Aspen Ridge (after knee surgery) and I'm really amazed at how well this place is run, how nice everything (and everyone) is, etc.

Staff is kickass and attentive