The Gardens of Smyrna

My mother is at The Gardens of Smyrna. It's been good. They've stepped up to the plate and they seem to be looking after mom fairly well. There were some issues in the beginning. Mom was falling a lot and there just seemed like no one was around to supervise and help prevent her from falling. That was my general impression, but again I'm not there, so I can't really say it was their fault. It's definitely hard to keep eyes on someone 24/7, but it seems like we've got that situation under control. They signed on a hospice company to help give additional care. I guess mom was needing more looking after than what they could provide, so we got the hospice company on board. They generally are the ones who called me with updates about my mom and I don't hear from The Gardens very often, but overall I think they're doing a really good job. She's been there since late August. The facility is a little older. I can't really go into detail, but the facility could use a little updating. I think they do a good job with the food, but I haven't seen a lot of it because they really are restricting visitation due to Covid. I haven't seen her new room. They moved her from the original room that they had her in, but it was sufficient. It had a bathroom, a window, a chair, and a bed. I don't feel like they're doing a whole lot of engaging activities. I think that they just kind of get by. I've seen a little bit of the food, and it seems like they do a complete meal. They serve with paper plates and things like that, but the food quality seems okay.

My visit to The Gardens of Smyrna was very nice. They have very polite staff, but it just didn't work out for us because it was too far away and cost too much. The environment was very pleasant, the staff showed us the dining area where they have a whole diner like a grill, they watch movies, they have a reading station at the back, they also do various things with their residents. I saw in their little activities calendar that they have movie nights, a store that's run by one of the guys there, it's very little but they have things like candy bars if the residents want that. I only met the owner and one CNA because I toured late at night, but they were very friendly.

The tour at the Gardens of Smyrna was fine, but the patients there were lower functioning for my mother, and I didn't think it would be a good fit for her. There were too many people there. The staff who walked me around was really nice. There were 2 or 3 different rooms, they were okay, what I expected them to be, and so that was fine. What I didn't like though, when I first came in, I smelled bleach on top of something else, I saw that they were cleaning, and the smell was overwhelming. They showed me a break room area where most of the people could congregate, and they did have separate sitting areas where you could watch TV.

I thought The Gardens of Smyrna was dingy and dirty. She said they were in the process of renovating the place, but I didn’t like the layout or the overall ambience. It’s more or less like a ranch-style home on the top floor. There is a large flight of stairs going down to the basement that’s real narrow. I think, for seniors, to navigate that is difficult, and once you get to the bottom floor, there is a common area with worn furniture and some cables. It didn’t look clean but old. The front of it looks like a business, but the inside looks like a house.

I visited The Gardens, and I don't think I can live there. The people there have dementia. The space is limited, and it's small. The men's quarter smelled.

The location of The Gardens at Smyrna was good, but there weren’t too many activities taking place, and there weren’t a lot of employees. The ratio of staff to the residents wasn’t really good for me. They serve 3 meals with snacks. The staff that assisted me was informative.

My father-in-law is in the Gardens of Smyrna, and so far, we like it. The cleanliness is fine. The staff seem to be friendly and knowledgeable. He seems to like the food. They have people upstairs and downstairs, with more activities for the people upstairs.