B & M Care for Elderly Inc

Michealene

My mom is staying at B & M Care for Elderly. It's a small place. They don't have a memory care facility. They've had experience with memory care patients, but not the actual caregivers. It's the owners that have had to care. When I talk to them, they're wonderful, but if somebody has memory care problems, they're going to struggle with being creative enough to try to figure out what somebody is saying when they have a strong accent. They're pretty much of the Philippines, which is wonderful and fine, too, but many of them have strong accents. My mom doesn't understand what they're saying and then they don't understand what she's asking for either, just because they're familiar with different words. There's a communication barrier much of the time. I can call the owner manager and say, "Hey, this is what's going on. My mom's trying to tell him this or that and they don't understand" and then she'll relay it, but I'm not always available to do that. The other issue is probably quality of food is lacking. They have a lot of fresh fruit, but they have some frozen and canned goods, like canned vegetables. I think they try to get something that the tenant would want to eat specifically. The caregivers' experience with patients that have dementia is lacking. It could be improved because there are things like my mom said she wanted to go home and they said, "You are home," and she said, "No, I want to go back to Utah," where she used to live. For them to say you are home is really scary and confusing for somebody with dementia. She called me and said, "They don't understand what I'm saying." They switched caregivers pretty often, too, so I would try to keep getting the current caregivers' numbers. I remembered them saying that to another lady who said she wanted to go home. I guess they're just trying to say, "This is your home now," but that's really disturbing to somebody who has dementia. They can talk to them and try to redirect them. They might say, "What are the things that you like about your home? What is it that you miss about it?" Just have a conversation about it that helps them to get to know them better. They just need to be trained better. I know that the manager/owners have some experience with it, but they need to pass that on with their caregivers that are actually in the homes. They have two houses in the same neighborhood that can each have five people. There are some problems with the lights. The porch light is not always on when it's dark. They said something about because of fire code they can't actually have locks on the outside door of the house, so you could actually go out the backyard and not be able to get back in. You can't get out of the front door until they come over. If the tenants go out to the backyard, they should be able to get back in. They have alarms, so as long as they have the alarm switched on they will most likely hear the alarm. Also, there's only one person there to care for the five people, so that makes it hard, because some of them are bedridden and they're towards the back of the house, and the caregiver can't hear the door alarms there as easy. They try to make sure that they eat. She doesn't want to be inside. She wants to go outside. There's a small backyard for her to be in and that's not working. They don't take her on drives and they say they're going to take her on walks, but then they don't take her as often as we agreed on. They don't have planned activities there except for one Christmas party for them. It's pretty much you either find something to do for yourself or you watch TV. They did have two caregivers when my mom first came there, but Mom kind of scared the wife away. Now they've just been getting one young caregiver there. They kept saying they had to get one more because they were going to have five people.

Betty

My sister has been at B & M Care for Elderly Inc for 4 months now, but she is not happy there. They're oriental and they serve a lot of oriental food. There's also a language barrier, so they have a hard time understanding her. For me, it's a very nice place. It's a brand-new home in a good neighborhood. They're very nice people, as well. They're very courteous and we're very happy with them. They have private and shared rooms. The room that my sister is in has a big patio and a big brand new shed. They have a Jacuzzi/whirlpool facility inside. They have an area where they bring the residents to watch TV and it's very quiet. They have a nice dining area. It's a one-story home with a big island kitchen. It's very spacious and nice. The backyard is nice and well-kept with grass and roses. There's only one caregiver and sometimes her husband helps her. She cooks and does everything. She's nice to all the people. She prepares them to bed early around 4 or 5. And in the morning, they get up early as well.