Gateway Living

First off, the way this community is set up is sort of odd, the community is made up of different homes - sort of like a little neighborhood - with a little over a dozen residents in each home. There are, I believe, a little over 150 homes total. As a whole, they act like houses in a typical neighborhood, they live next to each other but remain merely acquaintances, however, the residents living together within each of the houses become close like family since there are so few of them in each house. Every once in a while they will have neighborhood functions and events where the staff try to bring all of the residents together. The layout makes it very hard to make it to every home and speak to every resident during my visit, so my visit to this community usually takes about a week to complete which is longer than any other community I visit. I mean, I get what they were trying to do designing the community like this, but it just doesn't seem to work and the residents and families always tell me that while they at first thought it would be great, it turned out to be a lay out that they really dislike. They say that it is inconvenient and the residents say that they do not have the ability to really get to know all of the other residents.

I have visited this community many times now and from my very first visit on I have seen and heard many things that have caused me great concern or issues that have frustrated myself, residents, and family members. The treatment and quality of care provided to each resident is poor at best. The staff members always appear to be more wrapped up in gossiping and drama with other staff members than caring for the residents. Due to the lack of care and attention I have seen many incidents have qualified as resident neglect, I have spoke with residents who appeared to have not received shower assistance in days, residents who have not been given their medications properly or have been skipped altogether, residents who have not had medical equipment prescriptions filled that were deemed crucial for the resident to have by the resident's physician, and I cannot count how many times the staff have "lost" a resident just to later find them in one of the other homes. I have seen and heard of SO many neglectful issues it would take all day to list them all. My point is, is that when looking for senior living you should probably avoid a community that has had so many complaints about resident neglect. Family members have told me of things they have witnessed such as one family told me that on 7 different occasions she walked in to the her loved one's home to find her loved one wearing someone else's clothes! If the staff can't even keep the laundry straight, how are they going to be able to adequately care for the residents? The answer is: They don't. There have been many families and residents who have come to me with concerns, families who are not in the position or capable of being able to move out the community. Families and residents who just want to be treated well and have their care needs met, things that they should NEVER have to ask for as they should be a given. The residents deserve much better treatment and care than they are receiving. They deserve to have staff members who take the time to get to know their names instead of referring to them as "hey you!" or "resident" I have actually heard several staff members say things like this, one said "hey resident, yeah, you in the blue, come here" (?!?!) I could not believe the first time I heard the staff get a residents attention this way. I mean I get that there are so many homes with different residents in them, but It's not like there are so many residents it's impossible to know them all personally, I have seen staff members in facilities with many more residents know their residents on a personal level or AT LEAST know their names.

It's just the level of unprofessionalism, lack of ethics, disrespect, disregard for resident rights and so on is so unnerving, sometimes it seems like the staff are not even aware of it.

I have wrote letters, made phone calls, and have explored many avenues to help this community become a better home for the residents living there, and I can happily say that as of my last visit, I have seen some major improvements. The community is far from perfect, but I am happy to see that they are at least working at it. For a long time there it seemed like the management/director/owners just didn't care, but now I am seeing changes slowly taking place. I have also seen a difference in the care and treatment of the residents and on my last visit I even heard a couple of compliments! I still heard many complaints, but the few compliments I heard at least gave me a bit of hope. I want more than anything for this community to be a happy and loving home for all it's residents. I would hate to see the residents have to move and leave their friends behind, some of the friendships that have been formed in this community are very special to the residents and I think having close friends in the community you live in is so important in keeping you happy. So, while many, many things still need to be worked out and worked on, I am starting to form a little hope which is excellent since 3 months ago I thought all hope was lost when it came to Gateway Living. While I don't think this community is appropriate for those who need senior housing immediately, I do think that for those who have some time to wait, I encourage you to visit and monitor the facility's progress - hopefully one day soon it will be a community worth your time.