Summerfield of Encinitas sits at 1350 S. El Camino Real, Encinitas, CA 92024, and holds California license number 374604227. The licensee is SNH CAL Tenant LLC with Northstar Senior Living, Inc., the licensed capacity is 56, and the license has been active since February 2020.
What makes this community unusual among places families consider for assisted living in Encinitas is how narrow its focus is. It is a memory care community rather than a general assisted living building, which shapes everything from the layout to the staffing to who is a good fit. The listed administrator is Heather Myers, and the phone number is (760) 479-1818.
What Kind of Care Does Summerfield of Encinitas Provide?
Memory care, with both long-term and respite stays. The community describes itself as a dementia-focused senior living community, and it offers spacious private and semi-private suites rather than apartments. That is the usual arrangement when supervision matters more than square footage, and it is also why respite stays are possible here when a family caregiver needs a break.
Day-to-day support covers activities of daily living, with staff on site around the clock and common areas built for gathering rather than for privacy. Housekeeping and laundry run on a regular schedule, meals are served family-style in a large dining room, and there is an in-house beauty salon.
The activity calendar leans social and sensory, which is typical of dementia programming: exercise and yoga classes, arts and crafts, pet therapy, live entertainment, themed parties, and a structured music program. The community also lists in-house doctor visits and arranges transportation for residents going out.
How Is Memory Care Different From Assisted Living?
Both sit under the same California license type, and the difference is in the program rather than the paperwork. MedlinePlus (2023) describes assisted living as housing plus help with daily care, including dressing, bathing, medicine reminders, and cleaning, for people who do not need the medical care a nursing home provides.
Memory care narrows that to residents with Alzheimer's disease or another dementia, and adds what those residents need: secured exits, staff trained in dementia behavior, routines that stay the same from day to day, and activities built around what a person can still do. A general assisted living building may accept a resident with early dementia; a memory care community is designed for the middle and later stages.
Levels of care matter to the bill. MedlinePlus notes that facilities usually offer several levels and that residents pay more for higher levels, so the quoted monthly rate is rarely the final number. The National Institute on Aging (2023) also notes that some residential facilities run special programs for people with dementia, which is worth asking about directly rather than assuming.
What Does Medical Care Look Like After a Move-In?
A licensed community of this type is not a medical facility. Nursing care, lab work, and imaging are not part of the license, so residents keep their own physicians and specialists, and anything clinical comes in from outside or happens at an appointment.
That is why visiting clinicians matter so much in practice. A doctor who sees residents where they live can handle routine follow-ups, medication reviews, and the forms a community needs without putting a resident with dementia through a car ride and a waiting room.
Ask how the community currently handles it before a move-in. Some buildings already have a physician group, a mobile lab, and a home health agency they work with regularly; others leave it entirely to the family. Either answer is workable, but they lead to very different amounts of work for you.
What Is the Neighborhood Like?
South El Camino Real is the main north-south corridor through Encinitas, a few minutes inland from the coast and an easy drive from Carlsbad, Cardiff, and Leucadia. For visiting family that means straightforward access from Interstate 5 without the parking problem that comes with being right at the beach.
The community names a long list of places residents visit: Moonlight State Beach, Swami's Beach, San Elijo State Beach, Cardiff State Beach, the San Diego Botanic Garden, the Leucadia farmers market, Annie's Canyon Trail, the Encinitas Library, the Flower Fields, and Encinitas Ranch Golf Course. Transportation is arranged by the community.
The coastal climate is the practical draw. Mild temperatures year-round make outdoor time realistic most of the year, which matters more than it sounds for residents who do better with a daily walk and some sun than with another afternoon indoors.
Planning a Visit
What to Ask on a Tour
Start with availability and current pricing, then work through the questions that change daily life: the staff-to-resident ratio on each shift, which level of care the person you are asking about would land in, what that level includes, and what triggers a move to a higher one.
Then ask the awkward ones. How the community handles wandering, nighttime agitation, and a resident who refuses care; what happens if needs outgrow the license; how medication is managed and by whom; and what the move-out conditions are. Ask to visit twice, once at a mealtime and once in the late afternoon.
Contact details and tour requests go through the community itself. Its own website lists floor plans, living options, current promotions, and a contact form, and the phone number above reaches the front desk. Call before driving over, since memory care openings at a specific level of care come and go week to week.
Getting Help With the Search
Most families look at several places, and comparing them is slower than it looks. A placement advisor who works in this area, such as Assisted Living Solutions, can narrow a list to buildings that actually have an opening at the right level of care in San Diego County.
If you would rather compare advisors first, the directory of placement agencies lists the ones in the Doctor2me network with their service areas. Either way, get the LIC 602A handled early, because it is the step that most often holds up a move-in date.
Sources Used
Assisted Living – MedlinePlus (2023)
Introducing Senior Living Memory Care in Encinitas, CA – Summerfield of Encinitas
What Is Long-Term Care? – National Institute on Aging (2023)
Written by Sofiia Puhach
November 14, 2026
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