Deerfield Village Assisted Living Residence

There are a few things about this facility that worries me -

First - This is a assisted living and skilled nursing community which means that the residents need a variety of care needs met - some residents may require more assistance than others but they ALL need some form of assistance and I have not seen, over the course of my visits, that they are receiving the necessary care. I am concerned with how I have seen the residents get treated, particularly the residents in the skilled nursing area. I have seen these residents treated very pretty poorly at times. I have witnessed everything from disrespect to resident neglect to dangerous errors that luckily did not cause harm to residents, but easily could have. One of the incidents that I will ALWAYS remember because of how much it sickened and saddened me was one day I decided to visit early in the morning because I like to walk in to communities when the staff members are least expecting me - the element of surprise can teach you a whole lot about a community - that's why I am always telling people not to "schedule" tours but to just walk in to the community - if the staff are expecting you they can create any illusion of the community they want you to see. Anyways - I walked in early, only to overhear one of the staff members complaining to fellow staff member that 4 residents had wet themselves during the night and that she was so not looking forward to having to clean them up - the key words here are "having to" meaning that while the staff member was complaining about the situation the 4 residents were still in their beds laying in the wetness! Here's the main issue with the entire situation - any caregiver knows that with residents in senior living, with the exception of some independent living residents, you pretty much have to escort them to the restroom during the night if they are not inclined to go on their own, if not, than you may very well have accidents. I asked the staff member complaining if she had taken the residents to the restroom during the night as she was just coming off of night shift. She said no, that she did not want to wake them - which I took to mean that she didn't want to be bothered with having to wake them to take them to the restroom. Not only that but it was a little after 5 am which meant that some of them could have been laying like that for hours! How would the caregivers feel if that were there mother or grandmother, father or grandfather? I bet they would be beside themselves with anger and sadness and frustration. They weren't even my relatives and I was feeling all of those emotions so I know the families would. I could not believe that I heard the staff member complaining to the other about having to clean them! If I had the authority, I would have been in there early the next morning checking to see just how many residents had accidents during the night and had not been tended to. This incident should never have even happened in the first place and wouldn't have if the staff member had been doing her job! Unfortunately, there is not much more that I can do than complain to hopefully the right people, file grievances and write letters, and speak up and warn people about the issue. All I can do is hope to help the residents currently there and try to prevent it from happening to new people.

Another issue I have with this community, and this is an issue that I have both witnessed personally and have been told about by family members of residents and by some of the residents themselves, but there seems to be a lack of honesty from the management/support staff. This dishonesty issue has actually become somewhat of an issue and has affected many families. For example, one resident had a fall - she wasn't injured but did have some bruises from the fall, she later told her family about the fall and when the family confronted the staff/management about why the fall was never reported to them - the staff claimed that there never was a fall - despite the bruises on the resident indicating a fall. Another issue happened with a family before they moved their loved one in, they said that the management team promised them that they would implement a specific type of diet for their loved one, a diet that was based off of the family's religion - the management told the family they had spoke with the chef and team and that the diet was approved by the team and would be available for the resident upon move-in. The family said that this was the first community who had agreed to follow the diet plan - others couldn't follow it because of what the diet entailed and because parts of the diet disagreed with state nutrition guidelines so when Deerfield Village told the family that they would accommodate the diet, the family and future resident were ecstatic and made the decision to move in to the facility. Then almost as soon as all of the papers were signed and the resident was all moved in - the resident at their first mealtime was informed by the chef that all the member of the management team asked them is if they would accommodate special religious diets and the chef said that they told management that it DEPENDED on the particular diet because they had guidelines that they HAD to follow. So even though the member of management was told that it "depended" she went right back to the family and said "yes" they could accommodate their special diet! Which in the end the family was ultimately told they could not be accommodated because the specifics of the diet didn't meet nutrition requirements. I had had SEVERAL families tell me that the staff had promised certain things for themselves and their loved ones before they moved in and then as soon as they signed on the dotted line and got their loved ones all un-packed and settled they had they began to realize that the some of the amenities and services they had been promised did not exist at all - and that it was probably just lip-service on behalf of management attempting to fill capacity. Does this mean that the management will tell potential residents and their families what they want to hear just to get them to move in? I have also had times where I have personally caught a member of the staff being dishonest, either to myself or to a resident. How do you build a strong foundation with the residents and their families if the foundation is built on dishonesty. Trust is SO important in senior living - you are trusting strangers to take care of people you love who are no longer able to fully take care of themselves, you are trusting them to do right by you and your loved ones. The residents also need to be able to trust the staff members taking care of them, it can be a intimidating thing to let go and let someone step in and help you as you get older and need more and more assistance and if the person helping you is someone you feel uncomfortable around or are not able to trust full or someone that is not a dependable person for you to rely on makes needing assistance an even more difficult reality to face. There have been too many instances happen in this facility where I have either seen the residents cared for poorly or treated disrespectfully and there are too many instances where the staff has been unethical and dishonest so it is my hope that those looking in to Deerfield Village will one think very carefully about it and two DOCUMENT everything they promise your loved one prior to moving and HAVE THEM PUT IT IN WRITING! Just please talk to the residents and their families, get to really know what happens behind the scenes and don't jump into a decision too quickly because it is one of the most important decisions you will ever make.

When my neighbor said that she was going to move to a retirement community, I was a bit shocked. I never pictured someone so independent (10 years alone after her husband had passed) even wanting to move to such a place. However, she seemed happy, and that was the most important thing.

We came to visit her on numerous occasions. She seemed happy, well taken care of, and was even quick to introduce us to her new friends, which I think is an opportunity she never really got living next to us in the suburban sprawl. We even had lunch and dinner with her, to which the faculty was very pleasant.

I miss her, but I know that she went to a nice place. She seemed to do her research. She also passed away, not too long ago, but I know that she was in good hands and in good company.

My grandfather was hesitant to go to assisted living but Deerfield's team has made the transition much easier for him and us. The facility is kept nicely updated and clean.