New Haven Assisted Living and Memory Care - Bastrop

My father was in New Haven Assisted Living and Memory Care - Bastrop. They have two buildings. He started in assisted living, and then before he left there he was in memory care. It started out pretty good for assisted living, and they said, "well, if he needs it, he'll go to memory care." I didn't take the time to go look in the memory care area before COVID hit, but he got put in there right after COVID hit. We weren't allowed inside. All I could hear was the screams from inside, and so it was pretty much a nightmare. The police ended up being at that facility (not of my doing), but other families. That's how bad it was, it had to do with medication, but the food became a big issue as well. My father has a lot of digestive issues (as a lot of people do), and the medication was not given properly. Numerous trips to the E.R., and that's a pretty good summary of the horrible situation as it progressed and became worse after COVID. The amenities are excellent, that's the thing that sells the place. All are private rooms. There are no shared rooms that I know of. They usually don't allow couples, though that's already been posted on the Internet. It's questionable because some people don't want to be separated when they're older so they might work with people on that. They have a place on the outside that is covered. It has a screened porch, which was wonderful during COVID for me. They weren't even allowing them on the porch because of CDC guidelines, but that's in one of the buildings they were in process of doing. They did have an area where the residents could go out like in an enclosed area in memory care. Even the outside area and the patio area had a fence around it, so it kept the residents safe out there. They can soak in a little sun if it was a nice day. The windows let a little light come in there until COVID hit, and then it became a dungeon because the residents were freaking out, so were the families. So they closed that until they could get it under control with the stupid window visits. They had a high turnover, so it was very difficult for him to even get comfortable with any of the caregivers. That never changed in over a year's time, and before COVID even.

Although the facility is nice the staff continuously turns over due to low pay. They advertise trained memory caregivers which they don't have. The staff complained to us. We had many, many discussions with the director and her boss and ultimately with the owner. All they did was complain about their staffing problem -- why don't you pay them a fair wage so they will stay instead of going to work for Buccee's? Owner doesn't care about anything but profit. Filed complaint w/state & was told they had many complaints already.

We have been very happy with the New Haven facility in Bastrop. They have taken care of our loved one since Feb 2019 and do an outstanding job. What these team members do is not easy, and clearly they are managed by great leadership and love for the residents. The very few issues we have experienced at this facility were corrected immediately and were very minor. Staff is very responsive to calls and I have ALWAYS been able to get in touch with leadership if I needed them. The facilities are always clean and it feels like a true home.