Kokoro Assisted Living

The website says "around the clock staffing and security." That would be good if it were true but the fact is that there were two breakins in a period of two years and one resident got assaulted. Plus they are often short staffing and there is no management of the staff. We pray that nothing happens to our loved one at night. The staff are hard to reach and sometimes not even awake. The management has no idea or don't seem to care. It is sad. News about Kokoro that we should know about often does not get reported in a timely fashion, if we hear about it at all. We hear an earful of excuses, like there is not a full staff or someone was on vacation for two weeks or someone was sick. Well guess what? There are residents who need care. We hear about how medications are not properly administered and residents land in the hospital. Oversight is really lacking. Responsibility is not taken. The good reviews of this place are from people who are independent or probably not involved much in the care of their family member. We on the other hand have a lot of concerns.

We have a family member here but a lot of our free time lately is spent looking for another place. We are just not getting the care or basic services we signed up for. There are a lot of issues that we have hoped would get sorted out but they have not and we feel like we have given this place a lot of chances. We don't trust some of the staff there. Some of them are excellent and really caring but others just don't show up or do a shabby job. The executive director can put on a good face but is unresponsive to our needs. We have to follow up quite a bit to get a reply or we get the runaround. We are finding that other families are experiencing the same thing. Some families are running out of money paying for private caregivers which they really shouldn't have to pay for if Kokoro was doing its job. We don't want to be in that position. While we are at it, Kokoro also seems to hide information. For example there were a few breakins over the last year. The executive staff kept it quiet until families started to ask about it. They say they have an "Open Door" policy but what good is it when the communications are so unclear or misleading? I am sorry that we are at this point since Kokoro seemed like it would be a good place. The families are nice and some of the staff work really hard. But there are staff who should have been let go a long time ago for putting residents at risk and they are still there! The same will probably be the case with the executive director no matter what complaints families raise, and they have. It is no wonder residents leave and staff resign left and right. We were told that there was a new hire recently but no one has seen this person. That's the normal way here, unfortunately. We have hoped Kokoro could bring in new leadership that is interested in the elderly and their needs. But there is no accountability which is really too bad especially since the victims are our loved ones.

I have a family member here and we’re always worried about their care. The place seems short-staffed all the time whether it’s day or night. We are really not convinced that much thought or oversight is given to the staffing ratios or the care of the residents. Even if the bare minimum number of staff are showing up for work, how can they possibly be doing their jobs if they are sleeping through their shifts, or lounging around in residents rooms (unbeknownst to the residents who have dementia) or showing up with a scowl on their face? Kokoro claims they have an “open door” policy but who wants to bring things up when nothing good happens when you do? It’s all vague answers, empty apologies and excuses. We are running out of money paying for private caregivers which we have hired because we can’t count on the staff. We have tried working with the staff directly, talking with the director. Nothing is working. We have met some really nice people at Kokoro. The families there are lovely and some of the staff are fabulous. But as much as we'd like to keep our loved one there, we are are constantly thinking that we need to look for other options, A lot of staff have resigned lately, which is another troubling sign. We get it. Imagine witnessing your coworkers not doing their jobs and getting by while others have to pick up the slack and bear the boss’s wrath. Hopefully things will get better but probably not with this management since the current executive director has been there in some role for a long time. I have heard that concerns have been raised to the board of directors but they seem totally handsoff and let the director run the show. It’s hard to know how this place can be improved when no one who is in a position of power cares enough to do anything. Kokoro could have so much going for it if the leadership was stronger and more caring of the elderly. We wished we could write something more positive about it and tell people what an amazing facility it is. But we are really hard pressed right now to justify that it is worth the money.

Unique assisted living center where 90% of the residents are Japanese or of Japanese descent. Kokoro provides both a Western and Japanese menu for each meal, as well as many Japanese cultural activities. The staff are caring and hard working, and many can speak Japanese. The location right near Japantown SF is also ideal for the residents. This is an assisted living center rather than a nursing home so would not be a good fit for people with severe mobility problems or advanced dementia. Otherwise, it provides a wonderful setting and community, with an emphasis on Japanese culture.

the apartments are nice, but the staff is very lazy, what you can expect here is [Removed] errors, excessive falls with fractures, lazy staff that will ignore your loved one going so far as too yell at them for needing to go to the bathroom, not being sent to the hospital unless staff nurse is on duty if not they will have to wait sometimes for days before being sent out with major change of conditions. the director of resident care has no idea what she is doing, such as telling non medical staff to give glucose tabs when a resident is complaining of symptoms of hyper glycemia, stay away from this place if you care about your family at all. horrible horrible place, [Removed]and lazy. If I could rate them negative stars for quality of care I would.

HORRIBLE HORRIBLE PLACE< avoid this place at all cost! staff is lazy and uncaring, they treat the patients like furniture no as people. The director of resident care is completely ignorant about healthcare. The patients are not being changed or given showers. I have seen patients being dragged away from the dinning room while they are still trying to eat with staff not even bothering to ask if they are done and WANT to leave. The only people who seem to know what they are doing and actually care about the patients is the director of activities ([Removed]) and the staff nurse ([Removed]). I have talked with many other family's of the patients and they have similar complaints about their loved ones not being changed or given showers, being given the wrong meds, falling and getting hurt. Avoid this place at all cost.

They're a nice assisted living place in Japantown. It was a completely different situation that what my mother is in now. It's a nice facility. There are individual rooms and they make the food for you and everything but they don't really treat people with dementia so I didn't think it would be right for my mom.