Truewood by Merrill Keller

One of the most difficult decisions that must be made is whether or not to place a loved one in a memory care facility. That decision becomes a nightmare when the claims of marketing and salespersons don’t come anywhere close to the actual care of your loved one that has been entrusted to the staff. A friend made the difficult decision to place her father in THIS facility, and the only “custom, specialized care” came when the staff called for a family member to come be with him; and those calls came often. If they didn’t go, their loved one would remain soiled or on the floor due to a fall. The staff was not trained to work with dementia clients, or if they were, they never passed any competencies to prove they understood their training. BEFORE you choose this facility, go at various times of the day/night and see the staff in action; watch how they interact with clients; talk to family members who come visit. IF you choose this facility, put cameras in the room and check in often. Chances are you will be moving your loved one to another facility just like my friend did.

During the short stay of my father-in-law, we came by to check on him and found him to be completely out of sorts. We were unable to get a straight answer about if he had received medication or not. The conflicting information was never clarified. He fell several times the first week there and had not had any issues the previous three years living with us in a much less controlled environment. They have a faulty sensors in the room that is supposed to detect a fall that only ended up giving false alarms that led to them disrupting his sleep to see if he had fallen. We saw on our ring camera in his room that the staff came in and turned on his lights in the middle of the night to see if he fell and then proceeded to wake him up to see if he had fallen. He was laying on his pillow in the middle of his bed and completely covered up with his blanket. If he had fallen into bed I’m sure it was only because they kept him awake the previous two nights and forgot to give him his medicine for two days. Every time I visited I felt like the staff was more interested in doing the least amount of work possible instead of providing care. It takes a certain kind of person to care for others and there were very few of these kind of workers present. Seems like managements focus is on profitability instead of hiring workers with critical thinking skills and just plain old care and concern. Luckily we were able to get him moved to another facility that is certified to take care of dementia patients.

Our experience with a family friend at this memory care facility was deeply disappointing and concerning. Despite presenting itself as capable of caring for residents with dementia, the facility was not equipped—clinically or operationally—to meet even basic needs. Care was inconsistent, communication with family was poor, and concerns were often minimized rather than addressed. There appeared to be a lack of understanding of dementia-related behaviors and needs, resulting in inadequate supervision and a failure to provide appropriate, compassionate care. What was most troubling was the disconnect between what was promised during admission and what was actually delivered day to day. Families place an enormous amount of trust in memory care facilities, and in this case, that trust was not honored. Based on our experience, I would strongly caution others to thoroughly investigate alternative options before entrusting a loved one with dementia to this facility.