What This Community Is, and What It Used to Be Called
Riverstone Terrace Senior Living sits at 3209 Brookside Drive, Bakersfield, CA 93311, in southwest Bakersfield in Kern County. Its phone number is 661-663-9671, and it has been licensed as a residential care facility for the elderly since July 2008.
If you have been searching under a different name, you are in the right place. This is the community that operated as Pacifica Senior Living Bakersfield, and a California Department of Social Services facility evaluation report records the matching memory care license changing its name from Pacifica Senior Living Bakersfield Memory Care to Riverstone Terrace Senior Living Memory Care.
That matters practically rather than cosmetically. Old listings, old brochures and old referral notes still carry the Pacifica name, so a family calling around can easily believe they are comparing two separate buildings when they are looking at one campus under a new brand.
The licensed capacity on the assisted living side is 55 residents, which puts it in the mid-size range rather than among the large campuses. A smaller resident count usually means fewer staff to learn and a quieter dining room, and it also means availability can be limited when you call.
Two Licenses on One Campus
This is the detail families most often miss here, and it changes which building you are actually touring. The community holds two separate state licenses at two neighboring addresses, so the name on the sign covers more than one licensed setting.
The community's own site lists them in its footer: assisted living under license number 157204130, and memory care under license number 157204131. The assisted living license belongs to 3209 Brookside Drive, while the memory care license is held at 3115 Brookside Drive, a short distance along the same street.
So "moving to memory care" here can mean moving between licensed settings rather than staying put. Ask on the tour which address a prospective resident would live at, which license covers that address, and what a later move between the two would involve in paperwork, cost and room availability.
Each license also has its own administrator of record and its own inspection history with the state. If you want to read the evaluation reports before signing anything, search each facility number separately on the California Department of Social Services care facility search, because one number will not show you the other building.
Which Care Levels Are Offered
Four, which is wider than most communities of this size offer. The living options the community describes are independent living, assisted living, memory care and respite care, which is why it presents itself as a continuum rather than a single level of care.
Assisted living there is described as helping with activities of daily living including medication management, bathing, dressing and grooming, with housekeeping and laundry provided and three meals a day served in a restaurant-style dining room. Those are the standard components, so the differences between communities usually show up in staffing rather than in the list.
Memory care is described as a program for residents with dementia, Alzheimer's disease and other memory challenges, with care plans written individually and with input from families, plus a daily activity schedule intended to keep residents engaged. Private and companion memory care suites are both offered.
Respite care covers short-term stays in a furnished apartment or suite with access to the same meals, activities and amenities as long-term residents. The community notes that availability is limited, and it also presents respite as a way to try the place before committing to a permanent move.
Resident services listed across the community include assistance with daily living activities, transportation, move-in assistance, weekly housekeeping, laundry and linen service, garbage removal, specialized memory care and staff on site 24 hours a day. Move-in assistance is worth asking about in detail, because what it includes varies widely between communities.
How Medical Care Usually Works Once Someone Lives There
An assisted living community is not a medical facility, and that surprises families more than anything else on move-in day. Residents keep their own doctors, prescriptions stay with their own pharmacy, and routine care continues as outpatient care arranged by the family.
In practice that means someone has to get a resident to appointments, or the appointments have to come to the resident. Transportation is on the services list here, which helps, though a trip still costs most of a day for a person with limited stamina.
The alternative many families use is a visiting clinician instead of a clinic appointment. A doctor who sees patients inside assisted living communities can handle a routine review, a change in condition, medication questions and required paperwork without anyone leaving the building.
Paperwork is the part that recurs. The LIC 602A is needed before admission, and facilities also ask for updated physician documentation when a resident's condition changes enough to affect their service plan, which is a second reason families end up looking for a physician who travels.
What "Now Accepting ALW" on Their Banner Means
The community's website currently advertises that it is accepting ALW, California's Medi-Cal Assisted Living Waiver. For a family paying out of pocket, that single line on a banner can change the arithmetic completely, which is why it deserves a direct question rather than an assumption.
It is also the line most likely to be misread. According to NCOA (2026), Medicaid does not cover the room-and-board portion of assisted living, while many states run waiver programs that help pay for the care services, and those waivers have limited enrollment with waitlists for people who qualify.
So the questions to ask are narrow and specific. What exactly does the waiver cover at this community, what remains the resident's responsibility, whether waiver beds are available now or waitlisted, and whether the memory care license accepts the waiver as well as the assisted living license.
Get the answers in writing before anything is signed. Waiver participation is a business arrangement a community can start or stop at any point, and a verbal yes during a tour is not the same thing as a confirmed waiver placement for a named resident.
What to Ask on the Tour
Tours are designed to show a building at its best, and the things that actually decide a placement are rarely visible in a hallway. A short written list keeps the visit useful and stops you remembering the questions in the car afterwards.
Which address and which license number would this resident live under
What the monthly fee covers at the care level being quoted, and what moves it to the next level
How a move between assisted living and memory care is handled in cost and paperwork
Staffing at night and at weekends, not just the daytime count you can see
Whether visiting physicians, mobile labs or home health agencies are allowed in, and which ones already come
What happens if a resident's needs exceed what the license permits
Whether the waiver applies to the specific apartment being offered
Ask to see the admission agreement and the resident service plan template, not just the brochure. Those two documents describe what the community has actually committed to, and reading them in the parking lot afterwards is far better than reading them on move-in day.
The Brookside Drive Neighborhood
The setting is southwest Bakersfield, which is the newer, quieter side of the city, and it is flat and easy to walk. Brookside Drive runs near the Kern River corridor, so visiting family can combine a stop with somewhere to take a resident outdoors.
Everyday errands are close enough to fold into a visit. The community points to The Shops at Riverwalk, The Marketplace and Town & Country Village Shopping Center nearby, along with restaurants including Chili's Grill & Bar, Firehouse Southwest Station and Spencer's Restaurant.
Hospital access is the part that matters most for an older resident, and it is reasonable here. Mercy Hospital Southwest, Bakersfield Heart Hospital and Adventist Health Bakersfield are all in the area, which shortens an ambulance trip and makes a specialist follow-up less of a journey.
Bakersfield summers are the honest drawback of the location. Heat limits outdoor time for several months of the year, so ask what the indoor activity space looks like in July, how shaded the outdoor areas are, and whether transport runs in the hottest part of the day.
A Reasonable Next Step
Two phone calls usually settle more than a week of browsing listings. One goes to the community, about availability at the level of care actually needed rather than in general, and one goes to someone who places people for a living.
A placement agency will know which Bakersfield communities currently have openings, which ones accept the waiver, and which ones take residents at a given level of need, which saves calling fifteen buildings in order to find three that qualify.
Line up the physician's report in parallel rather than afterwards. The LIC 602A is frequently the item that holds an admission date, and starting it while you are still touring removes a week or two from the timeline.
And confirm everything in this overview directly with the community before you act on it. Names, licenses, waiver participation and availability all change, sometimes within a month, so treat this page as a starting point for the call rather than a substitute for it.
Contact and Visiting Details
Riverstone Terrace Senior Living, 3209 Brookside Drive, Bakersfield, CA 93311, in Kern County. Phone 661-663-9671. The assisted living license number is 157204130, and the memory care license number is 157204131, held at 3115 Brookside Drive along the same street.
Tours are by appointment and the community's website has a tour request form as well as a gallery with floor plans, which is worth looking at before you visit so you can ask about a specific layout rather than a general one.
If you plan to bring a relative to the tour, say so when you book. Timing a visit around a good part of their day, and around a meal service you can observe, tells you more than a walk through empty common rooms.
Sources Used
Living Options – Riverstone Terrace Senior Living
Does Medicaid Pay for Assisted Living? – National Council on Aging (2026)
Riverstone Terrace Senior Living Welcomes You Home – Riverstone Terrace Senior Living
Services & Amenities – Riverstone Terrace Senior Living
Written by Sofiia Puhach
November 4, 2026
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Address: 3209 Brookside Drive, Bakersfield, CA 93311 (Kern County)