Gurwin Jewish Geriatric Center Commack, NY

4Seniors

If your loved one has dietary restrictions and/or dementia, think twice before enrolling them in their "Adult Day Health Program". My mom went here for a one week "trial" in their medical model adult day health program. She has short-term memory loss dementia, poor vision (legally blind in one eye) hypertension and spinal stenosis. The administrative staff seemed friendly and helpful at first, but upon a second day "visit" to drop off some meds I witnessed dietary errors, miscommunications and poor judgement of mom's needs. When I arrived to drop off some meds and vitamins mom had been taking, I witnessed mom assigned to a room with developmentally disabled and severe Alzheimer's patients. Patients unable to communicate, patients rocking back and forth, drooling or just sitting with their head down. Mom is not that bad mentally! She looked totally miserable. I was told she was confused the day before and she refused to do a crossword puzzle with the more higher functioning individuals, so they were going to "try" her out in that room. I did not feel that was a good reason for grouping her with DD and severe Alzheimer's patients. She is an introverted person and will speak if you speak to her first. She knows people, names, doesn't wander and is very docile. She was totally miserable there! As her lunch was served, I saw a dried out looking hamburger on the plate, ketchup in a package that she could not open due to arthritis in her hands, and very salty tomato juice! Mom has hypertension and is on a low fat diet, which I had reiterated to the head nurse many times, both verbally and in writing. Moreover, that morning I had discussed in depth with the head Dietician and came up with a menu plan, but they paid NO attention to it at all. Nobody was there to supervise or help her open the ketchup. Nobody even offered. I was glad I was there to help, but began to worry about the times I could not be there. The Dietician popped in to the room and just told mom she had beautiful eyes. She didn't even notice the salt laden juice on her tray, and that the menu was not as she had discussed with me at all! I had to point it out to her. Moreover, during mom's hour long assessment a week prior we were told the staff could administer meds and vitamins. We had a doctor's script giving them permission, plus the meds and vitamins in the original bottles. The first nurse in the room with DD patients was okay with it. After I requested mom to be switched back to the higher functioning group, the head nurse in that particular room promptly came at me with an attitude and stated "I can't give her these, they are not marked properly". So, which is it? It's okay to administer meds in one room, not in the other? And then it was mentioned that even OTC vitamins must have a prescription label, which was never explained to me during mom's hour long "assessment" the week prior. We had gone over her meds IN DETAIL, in person and on paper, and that was never made clear to me. The head nurse copped an attitude and said "it was in your paperwork that we MAILED to you, I ASSUMED you knew". To add insult to injury, the bus driver was irregular with pickup and drop off times and had to be told repeatedly that mom needed assistance walking to the bus due to her poor eyesight. You would think that by day four he would remember! One day when he was 45 minutes late in picking up mom, I called the home to speak to the head of transportation, whom I had met a day or so prior. The operator was rude and would not put me through. She came back on after about 4 minutes and said "he's pulling up now". I said okay, thank you and hung up. When I looked outside, he was nowhere in sight. It took several minutes before he pulled up to the driveway. By the end of the week, the phone receptionist reported that I was "yelling and screaming" at them during that phone call that mom was late, which was a big lie. They sure do know how to cover themselves and turn things around to make you look like a complainer when they do not follow protocol. Makes me wonder what else they would lie about.