Renaissance Gardens at Brooksby Village

My mother was in Renaissance for rehab, and they were keeping her there waiting for a room in memory care, but nothing had opened up in the past couple of months. She stayed in the skilled nursing and we just weren’t happy with it so we took her out. It’s a continuing care division, and they have assisted living, memory care, and skilled nursing. The staff seems pleasant enough, but anytime we had questions or request, it took too long to get an answer -- like a month. We had some questions about where she is getting to shower, and it turned out she hadn’t had a shower in a month because they said she didn’t want to go in which I thought they should be educated enough to know how to deal with dementia patients. We noticed that she was really just stuck in her room sitting on an alarm pad, and anytime she tried to get up it would go off. She tried to get up to go to the bathroom because when she rang the bell nobody came. She was supposed to be going to the toilet every couple of hours, and that wasn’t happening; it was sporadic, but she is incontinent. When my brothers and sisters visit her, she would be crying in her room, and she didn’t want to get out of the area. She would ask us not to leave and said she didn’t like it there. She didn’t like the food; they did have alternates, but it was the meals themselves. The soup was like a chicken noodle. She lived at Brooksby in the independent living for 10 years, and their meals were fine, but this wasn’t up to par. She didn’t like going to the dining room as it seemed like most of the patients there were stroke victims. She was only there because they didn’t have a room for her in the memory care so this was a hold over place until a room came up, but we had six weeks of that and she was just miserable. She wasn’t with people she could talk with. She is in a private room, and it was kind of small.

I used to work at Brooksby Village Retirement Community. I worked in the assisted living building, Renaissance Gardens. I worked in wait staff, giving residents the appropriate food for their needs. Brooksby Village is an expensive assisted living facility, however, it is very clean and friendly. Even though the food is not the best in Renaissance Gardens, it is delicious in the independent living restaurants. The bedrooms in Renaissance Gardens are pretty small, with just a bed, desk, and television, but they are very clean. There is a nice living room, where a staff member puts together an activities calendar. There are activities such as baking, playing bingo, and watching movies in this room. On the independent living side there is a lot you can do. There are buses that bring residents on trips, there are pool tables, and shuffle board. Even though it is a nice place to live, nursing staff can be a tad bit lacking when a resident needs them. It can sometimes take a while until they help you. Most of them are pretty lazy.