Light Heart Memory Care - Clear Lake Houston, TX

Light Heart Memory Care was a house. I wasn’t that impressed with how it was setup and organized since they only had two bathrooms and you had to go through one bedroom to go to one bathroom, and that would not work for us. The rooms were a good size, but two to three patients would share one room. The staff was very nice and very knowledgeable.

Light Heart is a most amazing place. It is a home environment for dementia patients that provides the best possible care for each resident. My mother lived there for two years, until she passed away in December. I have been surprised to see patients from other facilities arrive wheel chair bound in a catatonic state, then weeks later see them speaking, walking and eating at the table with the other residents. “It's about the people” The owner, Pat, selects good care givers, sets high expectations, demands excellence and the best people respond. They avoid using drugs to, as other facilities describe it “manage the patient.” Alzheimer's is devastating but they give residents the most life in their situation.

My mom was at Light Heart Memory Care - Hollydale for nine months. There were two caregivers for every four patients. The caregivers were very good with the patients and seem to be organized. It was a home-like setting in an actual house with eight residents, so they got pretty good personal attention. It was a locked memory care facility. The residents did crafts, and there was a beauty parlor day when residents could get their hair and nails done. I came over one day, and they were all making driver's licenses with different craft paper and pictures. A couple of people regularly came to sing songs, some of which were patriotic, religious, or old. They were songs that the residents would know. They would have ice cream sodas, milk shakes, and different things like that for snacks. There was a nice backyard for the residents to sit in, and the residents could have their own pets, too.

This was a perfect find for my mother in the late stages of Alzheimer's. We liked the private home concept - nothing fancy but felt like home in a house, with a backyard, 8 residents, several caregivers at any given time, homemade meals, music playing, activities, walks down the street. The owner and staff are very well versed in Alzheimer's care and redirection - which is not an easy thing to do. I travel for business and had to be away often. Light Heart gave me tremendous peace of mind that Mom was taken care of and not a danger to herself or anyone else. The staff was very loving with her and I appreciated that. Mom was a former tennis player and they would always look for tennis matches to put on the television - even in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's, she knew a good serve when she heard one. I was impressed that the staff had taken the time to read her bio and knew this was a previous passion of hers. Occasionally Mom was in clothes I had never seen before but after awhile, you just need to get over that. It is the least of your worries and she didn't know any better.