Pricing ranges from
    $3,683 – 4,419/month

    Sunrise on Vernier

    1850 Vernier Rd, Grosse Pointe Woods, MI, 48236
    4.3 · 66 reviews
    • Assisted living
    • Memory care
    AnonymousLoved one of resident
    3.0

    Caring staff, later inconsistent management

    I had a family member at Sunrise on Vernier. Many caregivers were compassionate, professional, and created a clean, home-like environment with good meals and strong memory-care expertise. The first year was excellent, but later management turnover and chronic staffing shortages led to inconsistent care - missed or insufficient meals, delayed meds and maintenance (AC/heater), and occasional rough handling or unattended residents. Rent rose without room upgrades, communication and security were uneven, and I saw signs of poor management. In short: excellent, caring staff and a well-kept place at times, but expect variability and monitor staffing/administration closely.

    Pricing

    $3,683+/moSemi-privateMemory Care
    $4,419+/moSuiteMemory Care

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    Amenities

    Healthcare services

    • Activities of daily living assistance
    • Assistance with bathing
    • Assistance with dressing
    • Assistance with transfers
    • Coordination with health care providers
    • Medication management
    • Mental wellness program
    • Respite program

    Healthcare staffing

    • 24-hour call system
    • 24-hour supervision

    Meals and dining

    • Diabetes diet
    • Meal preparation and service
    • Restaurant-style dining
    • Special dietary restrictions

    Room

    • Air-conditioning
    • Cable
    • Fully furnished
    • Housekeeping and linen services
    • Internet
    • Kitchenettes
    • Private bathrooms
    • Telephone
    • Wifi

    Memory care community services

    • Dementia waiver
    • Mild cognitive impairment
    • Specialized memory care programming

    Transportation

    • Community operated transportation
    • Transportation arrangement
    • Transportation arrangement (medical)
    • Transportation arrangement (non-medical)
    • Transportation to doctors appointments

    Common areas

    • Beauty salon
    • Computer center
    • Dining room
    • Fitness room
    • Gaming room
    • Garden
    • Outdoor patio
    • Outdoor space
    • Small library
    • Wellness center

    Community services

    • Concierge services
    • Fitness programs
    • Move-in coordination

    Activities

    • Community-sponsored activities
    • Planned day trips
    • Resident-run activities
    • Scheduled daily activities

    4.29 · 66 reviews

    Overall rating

    1. 5
    2. 4
    3. 3
    4. 2
    5. 1
    • Care

      4.0
    • Staff

      4.2
    • Meals

      3.5
    • Amenities

      3.7
    • Value

      2.0

    Pros

    • Compassionate, friendly and caring staff
    • Responsive and helpful nursing and clinical staff
    • High staff attentiveness and quick response times frequently reported
    • Many reviewers describe superb, hands-on resident care
    • Memory-care specialization and knowledgeable dementia care
    • Clean, well-maintained, modern-looking common areas
    • Generally high cleanliness and strong COVID protocols
    • Home-like atmosphere with personal touches and celebrations
    • Good social engagement and organized activities
    • Regular events, holiday decorations and occasional entertainment
    • Off-site outings and bus trips (parks, picnics)
    • Varied and generally healthy menu with dietary accommodations
    • Flexible dining options (in-room or dining room)
    • Pet-friendly community with house pets
    • Visitor-friendly parking and welcoming visitation
    • Multiple room options including private/single rooms and balconies
    • Accessible and convenient location
    • Perceived good staff-to-resident ratio at times
    • Front desk and administrative staff often described as helpful
    • Safety and security prioritized in many reports
    • Personalized care and collaboration with hospice when needed
    • Maintenance staff responsive for many issues
    • Warm, family-like atmosphere with positive resident interactions
    • Many strong recommendations from families and residents
    • Bright, spacious rooms and attractive common-area décor

    Cons

    • High cost and frequent rate increases; perceived as expensive
    • Significant staff turnover and inconsistent staffing
    • Management turnover and strain on leadership
    • Inconsistent quality of care across shifts and staff
    • Staffing shortages (especially during COVID) affected care tasks
    • Reports of neglect: weight loss and inadequate feeding for some
    • Laundry problems and soiled clothing handling issues
    • Belongings misplaced or items going missing
    • Maintenance delays (heater/AC issues, delayed fixes)
    • Some bathrooms and rooms show wear and need renovation
    • Variable food quality; some days meals considered inadequate
    • Reports of resident mistreatment, rough handling, or bruises
    • Incidents of residents being locked in rooms or restricted
    • Concerns about security and front-desk unavailability at times
    • Allegations of financial exploitation or manipulation of POA
    • Inconsistent communication from administration reported by some
    • Limited outdoor spaces and somewhat congested site layout
    • Some residents excluded from activities or outings
    • Memory-care unit concerns and variable experiences there
    • Occasional long wait times and staff availability challenges
    • Distrust of sales pitch reported by a few reviewers
    • Some reviewers describe overall poor care and regret placement
    • Inconsistent care coordination (medication and psychiatric follow-up)
    • Variable cleanliness/maintenance in private bathrooms
    • Perception that quality declined after first year for some residents

    Summary review

    Overall sentiment in the reviews of Sunrise on Vernier is mixed but leans toward positive with important and recurring caveats. A substantial portion of reviewers praise the staff as compassionate, responsive, and genuinely caring. Many families emphasize that nursing and caregiving teams are hands-on, knowledgeable about dementia care, and effective at creating a home-like environment with personal touches — birthday parties, holiday decorations, house pets, and a variety of activities. Multiple reviewers specifically recommend the community, citing clean common areas, strong COVID protocols, flexible dining options, private room choices (including balconies), and an overall sense of safety and professionalism. The facility is frequently described as modern, well-kept, and comfortable, with helpful front-desk and administrative staff and a number of organized social outings such as bus trips and picnics.

    Care quality is a prominent theme with two contrasting threads. Many reviewers report superb, attentive care: timely medication administration, knowledgeable dementia support, close nurse involvement, and good collaboration with hospice when needed. However, an equally important theme is inconsistency. Numerous reviews recount periods when care declined — especially after management or staffing changes — leading to concerns such as insufficient feeding, weight loss, missed medications, and lack of inclusion in activities. Staffing shortages (accentuated during COVID) and high turnover are repeatedly linked to these lapses. Reviewers describe overworked teams, difficulty maintaining regular staff assignments, and management strain that can undermine continuity and the overall standard of care.

    Operational and administrative issues appear often and deserve careful attention. Cost and billing are frequent complaints: Sunrise on Vernier is considered expensive by many reviewers, with some noting rising room rates that felt unsustainable. A few reviewers allege serious administrative or ethical problems — from perceived financial exploitation and manipulation of power of attorney to dishonest behavior by staff — though these reports are less common than general dissatisfaction with cost. Logistics problems are also reported: misplaced belongings, laundry mishandling, occasional missing items, and delays in maintenance requests (notably heating and air-conditioning repairs) and bathroom renovations. Security and front-desk availability are praised by many but criticized by some others, creating a mixed picture of how consistently administrative functions are delivered.

    Dining and programming present a generally positive but variable pattern. Many residents enjoy the meals and reviewers note a varied, healthy menu with accommodations for diets, and flexible choices to eat in the dining room or in-room. Still, several families reported days when food portions or quality were inadequate, and a few tied these issues to weight loss. Activities and social engagement are strengths for many residents — baking, flower arranging, outings, and frequent events — yet some residents and families felt their loved ones were excluded from activities or that offerings were insufficient, particularly when staffing was stretched.

    Safety and clinical concerns are an important caution. While many reviewers feel their relatives are safe, well-monitored, and receiving excellent dementia care, there are worrying reports of rough handling, bruises, residents left unsupervised, or even incidents where residents were locked in rooms. These items are less numerous than the positive reports but are serious in nature and were noted by multiple reviewers. Complaints about inconsistent care coordination — missed med changes, a psychiatrist not addressing concerns, and locked nurses’ stations — amplify the need for prospective families to verify clinical oversight and continuity.

    In summary, Sunrise on Vernier receives strong praise for its compassionate staff, clean and attractive facility, memory-care expertise, and robust programming when fully staffed. The most consistent risks reported are staffing instability, management turnover, and the operational consequences of those issues: inconsistent care, maintenance delays, variable dining, laundry and personal-item problems, and occasional serious incidents. Many families have had excellent experiences and would strongly recommend the community, but an important subset experienced declines in care and administrative concerns that led them to move their loved ones out. Prospective residents and families should weigh the strong positives — caring, experienced teams and a welcoming environment — against the reported variability: ask specific questions about current staff continuity, management stability, recent incidents, maintenance timelines, and billing increases; tour both common areas and private apartments (including bathrooms); request references from recent families in similar care levels; and clarify policies for incident reporting, medication management, and responsibilities for laundry and personal belongings before deciding.

    Location

    Map showing location of Sunrise on Vernier

    About Sunrise on Vernier

    Sunrise on Vernier sits in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, right at the corner of Vernier Road and Mack Avenue, making it easy to find, and this small, intimate place has a friendly atmosphere where people seem to know each other and the staff try hard to treat everyone with respect and care, and the place looks clean and well-kept every time you visit, with front desk staff always ready to greet anyone walking in or out. The community offers several types of care all in one location, so you'll find independent living for healthy, active folks who just want a social spot with fewer chores, along with assisted living for those who need a hand with daily routines, and then there's skilled nursing for those who need more help and skilled support, plus memory care designed for people with Alzheimer's or other types of dementia-with two neighborhoods, like Reminiscence Neighborhood and Edna's Place, that fit different levels of memory loss, and they've been doing this specialized memory care since 2006, even offering short-term respite and hospice stays if the need arises. There's a big focus on personalized attention since each resident has different needs, so they try to match care and activities with everyone's interests and health, and this includes programs like the Reminiscence Program and the Terrace Club along with Dignity Home Care, which gives trained aides who visit seniors living at home needing companionship or non-medical help.

    They're a licensed continuing care retirement community, which means people can get different types of care without having to move far, and they've won more than 280 national quality awards, which speaks to their long commitment, and for folks who need something extra, like assisted living medication management, they have Certified Assisted Living Directors, CALD training programs, and they keep up with regulatory resources for Home for the Aged (HFA) and Adult Foster Care (AFC). For meals, they serve dishes that focus on nutrition and taste using good ingredients, and residents eat together in the dining rooms, with living rooms, porches, patios, and both studio and one-bedroom apartments to pick from, and there are private rooms as well. The place lets you bring pets, has strong handicap accessibility, and you'll get Wi-Fi throughout, which is handy for keeping in touch with family or watching something online. There's also Sunrise CareConnect, which lets doctors and staff track care and health notes electronically so everyone's up to date, and they can help with telehealth visits, especially useful when outside visits are hard, like during the COVID-19 pandemic. Outings are popular, too, with trips to local restaurants, shops, concerts in The Village, Belle Isle picnics, and tours to the Eastern Market or Detroit Institute of Art, so everyone gets to enjoy some of what the city offers, and they coordinate with hospitals like Beaumont, St. John, and Henry Ford for ongoing healthcare needs. The approach here focuses on holistic senior care using current research and theories of aging, and personalized programs for wellness, so deep down the idea remains to champion every resident's quality of life and offer dignity, choice, and a safe, pleasant place to call home.

    About Sunrise Senior Living

    Sunrise on Vernier is managed by Sunrise Senior Living.

    Sunrise Senior Living is one of the largest senior care operators in North America, managing over 270 communities across the United States and Canada with approximately 22,000 employees. Founded in 1981 by Paul and Terry Klaassen in Oakton, Virginia, Sunrise pioneered the Victorian mansion-style senior living community design, inspired by Dutch senior care models and European hospitality concepts. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Sunrise offers a comprehensive continuum of care including independent living, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing, and hospice coordination.

    The company's signature memory care programs include Terrace Club Neighborhoods for residents with early to moderate memory loss, and Reminiscence Neighborhoods for those with advanced Alzheimer's and dementia. As an Authorized Validation Organization, Sunrise practices the Validation Method—which they call "exquisite listening"—using empathy-based communication techniques to reduce anxiety and improve quality of life for memory care residents. Their Live With Purpose™ programming engages residents through personalized activities aligned with their interests and life experiences.

    Sunrise leverages advanced technology including Sunrise CareConnect, an electronic health record system built on PointClickCare technology that enables real-time documentation, comprehensive health tracking, and remote access for healthcare providers. The Road Home Program offers specialized 30-day transitional care for seniors discharged from hospitals or rehabilitation centers, providing medication management and 24/7 support.

    The company has achieved notable sustainability certifications, with facilities earning WELL Health-Safety Rating, WELL Equity Rating, ENERGY STAR® certifications, and LEED Silver designation. Sunrise communities feature Individualized Service Plans, Designated Care Managers, and welcome pets, with many locations maintaining community cats or dogs. After celebrating 40 years in 2021, Sunrise continues its mission to champion quality of life for all seniors through their resident-centered, holistic approach to senior care.

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