The Waters of Scottsburg

Angela

My dad has been at The Waters of Scottsburg for a month now. When we first took him there, he was in the memory care, and we were very pleased. It was a small unit, and there was more individual attention given. However, about two weeks ago, he got a stomach virus and had a lot of diarrhea and so on. So they ended up putting him out in the general population. Since being in the general population, I would say that the care is not as personalized as it was in the other memory care. We've experienced a few little incidents. We went in one day to feed him, and his hands were covered in feces. He had just finished eating, and so I was curious how long that feces had been on his hands because it was dried and it was in his cuticles and stuff like that, and so that was a horrible experience for us. They also put him in a chair, and he is in this recliner now so that he can't get up and walk. He is not in a regular wheelchair anymore, and I just feel like that's kind of more crippling and weakening him even further. They're using a lift to get him in and out of bed, and that has been the case since the day he got diarrhea. He is very, very weak, and there have not been any opportunities for him since that day. He is just put in this chair, and he is being left there. Also, unfortunately, it seems like the medicine that they give him at night causes him to sleep through the next day, and so, he is coming to life about 6:30 to 7:00 in the evening, and then he wants to stay awake late into the night. Every nurse, including their director of nursing, has told us that they have a contract with a company to come in and provide food services, and they said the food is horrible, and so "to please try to feed him at least one meal per day." So, one time per day, me, my brother, or my sister, will carry food into the nursing home to feed him because even the nurses say that this food is horrible. I said then, "Why do you all contract with them?" They said, "There's nothing they can do about it." So we have to make sure one of us goes, and when we go, my dad is starving, and he's so hungry. So, I would say our experience is not great. You can tell that they've done some remodeling, and so the facility looks okay. I don't have any complaints about the cleanliness of it. You do go in, and you do not smell urine, which is what most nursing homes smell like. So I have to give them credit for that. They don't often keep my dad clean or put clean clothes on him or change him daily, but he has plenty of clothes in his closet. His clothes at first seemed like they were getting lost, but now that's kind of resolved. It's an older facility, obviously, but it's clean if that's what you're looking for. My dad is in a shared room, and apparently, all their rooms are shared. He initially was in a private room, but then, when they moved him to the general population, they put him in a shared room because they said that was the only bed they had. As for activities, they have church services and things like that. However, no one ever wheels him back there. He is left sitting in the same spot all day long. He would have enjoyed that, but they excluded him.