Heritage Healthcare at Sunrise

SunshineSparkle

Both my grandmother and great grandmother were residents at this nursing home for several years until their deaths. My great grandmother was admitted in the early 1990s and was there until she died in 1998; my grandmother from 2001 until her death in 2005. As this is a small town surrounded by mostly rural farmland there are not many options for senior living facilities, and this was essentially the only option available to our family. Both of my relatives who were residents there were strong willed women suffering from alzheimers/dementia, and as such they gave the caregivers quite a difficult time. There were several incidents with my grandmother in which family members who came by to visit her found suspicious marks on her body and neck; however, there was no way to validate what had happened so nothing came of it. This facility is clean enough; of course, no nursing home is going to smell entirely fresh and sparkling. However, the patients were for the most part left in their rooms unless it was time to go to dinner; they were then almost immediately wheeled back into their rooms. Aside from meals and church services, there was very little interaction between residents. Each time I visited the attendants were mostly clustered around the main desk talking with one another, and on the occasions that we needed assistance it often took around five minutes- in a facility this small it should not have taken longer than 2-3 at the most. From growing up visiting this facility, I have come to the conclusion that I will not be putting any of my elderly relatives in a nursing home unless it becomes an absolute necessity, and that should I have to do so, I will interview and tour as many as I need until I find a place I feel comfortable. This would not have been one of those.