Brighton Gardens of Columbia

I have been a volunteer at BG for quite some time. I love the place. The staff — especially Sheila and Margaret — always go above and beyond. The food is way beyond what you might expect. And the sweet little dog Josie is so loving with everyone, adding a special warmth to the residents’ day. This place would be my choice!

Brighton Garden's best is barely adequate, but where they fail miserably is in dementia care. Be concerned when your loved one is placed on their "memory care" (Reminiscence) unit. Behind locked doors, these residents are the forgotten ones. The Sunrise website touts a "resident centered dementia care approach." They further state "backed by the latest research, our staff designs programs with stimulating personalized multisensory experiences." While this sounds good, the reality at Brighton Gardens of Columbia comes nowhere near these accolades. The Activities Director has worked at the community for nearly 2 decades, and the activities she schedules are most certainly NOT backed by research. I don't see evidence of any education on her part regarding the current state of dementia programming. Activities are those of decades past-on the Assisted Living side, you'll find Bingo, occasional entertainment, Bingo, trips to the dollar store and area restaurants, Bingo....you get the idea. No creativity, no time spent in planning. On the Reminiscence unit, the calendar is full of inappropriate activities for the population: Coupon Clippers Club (most residents are unable to use scissors); Church Hymns (for the Jewish residents?); Walking club (what about the wheelchair bound?); Bingo of course, but only 2-3 residents can play. Multiple activities staff have quit in frustration. Despite their requests for more appropriate materials, including the technology that would allow for actual multisensory activities, the Activities Director continues to provide none of these. Even after multiple staff and families requested she purchase an iPad, and explained the free apps that are stimulating and engaging for those with dementia, she continues to provide coloring pages and colored pencils. While this Activities Director acknowledged that "maybe" she should get an iPad, she instead purchased "Sing Fit," which is good for just one activity that is neither stimulating nor engaging for the residents on the unit. Brain games make an appearance on the activities calendar, but when you provide staff with neither the training nor the materials needed, and the Director lacks the knowledge, engagement doesn't happen. Complaints to the Executive Director get you nowhere. While verbally in agreement that there are many issues that need to be addressed, she has proven that she only intends to placate, and not actually do anything to improve things. She freely admits that Sunrise is far behind the times where dementia programming is concerned, yet has no problems walking through the Reminiscence unit and observing residents sleeping on sofas or in their wheelchairs, nothing meaningful or engaging happening. Corporate supervisors have also witnessed this on multiple occasions, yet nothing changes. They have shown me that they do not care about the quality of the residents' lives. Furnishings are old and drab, carpeting worn. The Executive Director's response? They don't own the building and can't change anything. My request to provide materials to engage residents, a one time purchase of a few hundred dollars, was met with "not in the budget." Seriously? With most residents paying 7-8K per month, a few hundred isn't in the budget? Direct care staff is overworked and underpaid. In addition to caring for your loved one, they are responsible for serving all meals, feeding residents who need the help, cleaning the entire kitchen (including loading and unloading the dishwasher) and dining room, setting tables, folding napkins, bringing the garbage out to the dumpster on the opposite side of the building, etc.-3 times/day, while your loved one waits to be toileted and receive needed care. Again, the Executive Director acknowledged that actual dining room staff was needed, and she would not allow patient care to suffer. Months later, nothing has changed. Apparently this is also not in the budget. They are, however, very quick to raise their prices to you. They even take a percentage from the beauty shop's services, the cost of which is then passed on to families. Consider very carefully whether Brighton Gardens can meet your expectations. They've come nowhere close to mine, based on the Executive Director's assurances prior to signing the contract. As she recently said to me, "If you're not happy, why do you stay?" Guess I thought you were doing something to fix the problems. Apparently not. Time for corporate to clean house at Brighton Gardens!

Brighton Gardens of Columbia was a very nice place. They were very helpful, and they gave me good information. They were reading and playing Bingo, and some people were getting ready to go on a trip.

Brighton Gardens was 3 or 4 stories tall with wings going out. I thought they had up to around 60 or 80 residents. The problem was my mother had short term memory. If she was to leave her room in a facility like that to go down, I understood they had attendants and all those things to accommodate her, however, if she went down to the recreation area, sitting room or even the dining hall then preferred to went back on the elevator, she would not know which floor, wing or room to go to. It was way too much for my mom. They had very nice facilities, but they were not what I considered as accommodating. It was an excellent facility, but it was not for my mom. However, I thought it was excellent. For my wife and I, it would be perfect. It was 3 miles from us, and it was very clean.

I really liked Brighton Gardens. It had a different style, more like a dormitory, and I actually liked it better. It was not in a wooded area but closer to a highway-like road. Will gave us the tour. I really liked him. He was awesome. As he was giving us the tour, we saw residents, and he knew their names and a little bit about their lives and families.

I’m a nurse and I had patients in this facility. It is a beautiful facility aesthetically and have great nurses and aides who are experienced and really care. My patients love the care and activities and barely received any complaints. Our patient’s health was good quality, and ADLS needs met adequately. Any issues we raised regarding patient care were addressed in timely fashion. Some of our patients had families nurses who checked on them regularly and that helped. One of them requested our home care company to see him weekly out of pocket since medicare would not cover those visits, just to add another layer to his care. The ones we discharged from home care, were referred to family advocate nurses at Yofa who regularly checked on them and provided a good report about the facility as well. It's a great well run facility especially their alzheimer's unit. But like any other facility, I would remember families to regularly check with their loved ones. Subtle health changes that happens with older folks may go unnoticed and can be tragic (it happened to one of my patient there), and facilities are doing everything they can. A service like yofa nurses was a game changer for most families that never made it there or were out of town.

We know someone in Brighton Gardens and it seemed a nice place. I saw people sitting out front, which was nice. My favorite, favorite thing about the place is they have a resident dog because I am a huge animal lover, and I know a lot of these people probably at one time had pets, but then once you go in a place you don’t get to have pets anymore, so I just think that it is terrific. The staff seemed very, very nice, and I felt a kind of instant rapport with a few of them. At another time I was there, they were having snacks and they were very sweet. They offered some to us because we were visiting, and I thought it was very nice.

My mother-in-law is in an assisted living. She has been at Brighton Gardens of Columbia for one year now. It is an excellent facility. It is very nice. The residents pick their meals off of a menu. In the dining room, they can order anything special that they want. They are free to leave whenever they feel like it. It is a beautiful place. My mother-in-law has a private room. We chose this community because it is close to where my sister-in-law lives, and actually she checks in on her on a weekly basis. The staff has assisted us with everything. They keep an eye on my mother-in-law. If she has any problem, they take care of it. Regarding the food, this one seems to fulfill all our requirements too. My mother-in-law is very content with it.