Golden Acres Retirement Center

Golden Acres Retirement Center was awful. My brother had probably about five or six emergency room visits, and it wasn't until after the sixth visit that we realized that he was being bullied by one of the patients there. When the staff was approached, they were protective of Gordon, 'we're not going to do anything. The two of them don't have to be in the same room. They don't have to smoke together.' There was never a plan to take care of the bullying, and that's the primary reason why my brother was moved out of there. It was not a safe environment. The staff on the dayshift were not helpful, and I would never recommend anyone going there. It's not kept up very well in regards to cleanliness. Compared to where he is at now, he is getting three balanced meals per day and then they offer snacks. But at Golden Acres, they fed the patients three times a day, but a lot of times it was sandwiches. There weren't a whole lot of planned meals in the sense of protein and carbs. It was lots of sandwiches. I'm the guardian for my brother, and the dayshift staff would do things without consulting me sometimes and that's inappropriate. With the guardian, they need to ask their permission. Not even so much that as they need to let you know what's going on as far as meetings going to take place. Cherrie, the day shift nurse, who was responsible for letting me know that my brother was going to have a video interview for this place that he's at now, never told me. When I went to visit him, he made a comment, he said, 'Oh, I had a video, and I'm going to be leaving and I'm going to this new place.' I had no idea. No idea. There's a real lack of communication. The evening shift girl worked well with my brother, but whenever you had a concern, she would say, 'Well, I don't know about that. That's a day shift thing.' They brought in some people who did music and were playing rock-type music and different types of music. My brother loves Elvis. He got up and was dancing, and he was sent to his room because they felt that he was disrupting and trying to take over the program. So that place is awful. They don't have many activities. They don't have the capability of helping get him to his appointments, and arranging transportation was a nightmare. They don't have any way of taking patients out into the community even to a park or somewhere. It was just a really poor choice. The price was good. It's just the service didn't go along with the price.

Golden Acres is what's called a residential care facility in Oregon. I had a client there and visited many times. It's basically assisted living but with more closely supervised 24-hour care. It's mainly for mentally ill seniors"”those with schizophrenia, for example"”and the care is phenomenal. They know what the residents need and they adapt to them. They're also extremely caring, warm, and well trained. It's an older facility and a bit run down. The rooms are small"”just 1 bedroom with shared bath----with a bed, dresser, and closet. It's not luxurious. The building is one story in the shape of a horseshoe, and there's a locked gate for safety reasons. I've never eaten there, but my client actually gained, and the food always looks good. It's appetizing. There's also a full activities program: Bingo, gardening, music, arts and crafts, church services. It's in East Portland, centrally located"”close to shops, restaurants, and easily accessible. Residents don't have to be mentally ill to live there, but anyone who isn't would likely feel out of place.