Overall sentiment across the reviews is mixed but leans toward concern: reviewers consistently praise the people and the mission behind St Gerard's Community of Care while calling out operational, facility, and atmosphere problems that reduce the overall quality of life and care. The most positive and recurrent themes are that staff are kind, caring, and mission-driven. Multiple reviewers note the influence of Catholic/faith-based leadership (run by Catholic nuns) and describe the staff as understanding and true to that mission. These observations suggest a culture of compassion and intent to serve residents’ needs.
However, those positive attributes are tempered by notable and repeated negatives. A frequent complaint is that staff sometimes communicate with residents in an infantilizing way — speaking to them as children — which reviewers found annoying and demeaning. This is an important communication and dignity issue that contrasts with comments about staff being nice and mission-driven. Another major cluster of concerns relates to infrastructure and maintenance: the facility is described as aging, likened to an old hospital, and reviewers report that equipment is often not working. Those conditions can directly impact care delivery, safety, and resident comfort.
Cleanliness and dining are additional areas of concern. Multiple reviewers mention unpleasant odors coming from residents and food. Odors like these can reflect challenges with personal care, laundry, ventilation, or food preparation and significantly affect residents’ and visitors’ perception of the environment. Reviewers rate the overall level of care as average — not poor, but not exceptional — which, combined with understaffing and nonfunctional equipment, suggests that the facility is delivering basic services but struggling to provide higher-quality or consistently reliable care.
Activity and social engagement receive some positive notes: staff or programs encourage residents to leave their rooms for social and mental stimulation, which indicates attempts to promote engagement rather than isolation. Despite these efforts, reviewers describe the atmosphere as not cheerful, implying low morale, limited enrichment beyond basic stimulation, or an institutional feel that’s hard to overcome in the current setting.
Management and operational themes are nuanced. The faith-based mission and the presence of compassionate staff are clear strengths and likely attract families looking for mission-driven care. Yet chronic short staffing and equipment failures point to systemic operational problems that undermine care delivery and resident experience. These issues are consistent across reviews and represent the most actionable concerns: staffing levels, maintenance, facilities upgrades, and communication training for staff.
In summary, St Gerard's Community of Care appears to have a strong, mission-oriented culture with caring staff who make efforts to engage residents. At the same time, persistent operational problems — aging infrastructure, odor issues, frequently broken equipment, understaffing, and sometimes patronizing communication — lower the overall quality and atmosphere. Families and prospective residents should weigh the compassionate staff and mission-driven governance against the facility’s physical condition, staffing reliability, and the reported tone of day-to-day interactions when considering this community.
