Poet's Walk Memory Care San Antonio

Derlene

My husband will be moving to Poet's Walk San Antonio. We chose this place because it's very open and cheerful. He has a large window in his room looking out into the courtyard. They have two large indoor courtyards, and the food there is very good. I went to a caregiver support meeting over there, and all of the people who were in the support group meetings had either a parent or a spouse in Poet's Walk, and they had nothing but good things to say about them. The food they served during the caregivers' support meeting was delicious, we asked where they had gotten that and they said that it was right there and their chef made it. They have a men's group, they have a military group, and my husband is a retired military, they have church services twice a week, and exercises. Every time I've been there, even unannounced, there's been so much activity out in the middle area. I was just really impressed with that. The maintenance people have been extremely helpful to me. I've been over there the last two days trying to get pictures on the wall, getting it set up and all that, and the maintenance staff have been fantastic to help me.

Lia

My mother is in memory care at Poet's Walk Memory Care San Antonio. She has been there for 18 months now. I think her experience has been good. Overall, though, I feel like it lacks communication. A new management took over about six months ago, and I've been disappointed ever since. If something happened, they didn't contact me. I would hear it from other people or I would have to call and find out. When I would get phone calls, I would call back and they wouldn't know who called me, and they wouldn't know what the purpose of the call was. And then they would send me to talk to somebody else and then eventually get hung up on. I'm very disappointed. That has only been since the new group took over. My mom is in a single room. It's a large size. The amenities there are nice. It's a beautiful building. However, the other day, my cousin went in there and my mother's toilet wasn't flushing, and it apparently hadn't been pushed for a long time, so my cousin had to go notify them, and then they asked my cousin to leave. I feel like they should have been checking that and I don't think it should be something that the family members should have to tell them about. They have a garden. They have cooking. They have a hairdresser that is good with my mother. They have activities throughout the day which include large fine motor activities. She participates in them. They also eat as a group. They are not allowed to eat in the room, which I understand. My mom seems to enjoy it. She has a group of people that she sits with. I think they should have a case manager. They should have somebody that manages each person so that when you have a question, you can call and talk to one person, not a group. I think they're too big for what my needs are. And their documentation should be better so that we wouldn't have to go talk to so many different people. I would say that their director was a very hands-on person when I first started there. He was very good at calling and communicating with me. Like he celebrated my mother's birthday, which my mother enjoyed. It was the only time I'd ever been invited to something like that.

Lynn

My mom is here. I know this is because of the pandemic, but my only issue is that if someone wants to see her, they have to supply their email address which I have to supply to the scheduler there. Then they have to email that person with SignUpGenius, and it is is kind of a complicated process. One of her friends wanted to go see her, but was turned away because you must make a reservation 24 hours in advance. I get it is to protect the residents, but it is almost too isolating. They are a very holistic-centered community that is pet friendly, but you can't have a pet there. They have birds and during the week they have a community dog that circulates around. They take a holistic approach to memory care and that they are individually oriented. It's all memory care, so they have a lot more freedom.

Scott

Mom moved here. It's well laid out, you can have various levels of memory care, all the staff seems caring, and you can do a number of activities during the day. They encourage the residents to get out and do activities, whether painting a picture, hitting a balloon, or doing puzzles. I was impressed with it. The food is very good, and my mother never complains about it. It had good variants, and they have other alternatives if the residents don't want their given meal.

Joel

My mom is here, and it is exceptionally clean. All the rooms are very bright and almost everything is brand new. The activities are very diversified, they are puzzles, games, and social events. The staff has been very good, and their system helps the staff identify the memory care needs of their patients.

Jan R.527316

We were quite impressed here. I've been getting reports on what kinds of activities he's been doing, and they have a website that I can go to and I can see exactly what his schedule had been. They also take pictures of him during the day and pictures of things going on. They also make great use of technology, so they have a monitoring system in the bedrooms so that if he starts trying to get out of bed, they'd know immediately because of motion detectors in the room. Also, all of the nurses and the aides carry a tablet with them where all of the medications are recorded in the computer immediately. Anything that happens with him gets reported into the tablet immediately, and if a nurse or aide is not really familiar with him, they can look him up and see what sorts of things soothe him so we were very impressed with that. We already knew some of the people who are going to work with him there because we've worked with them before. It's a very nice facility, and the staffing levels were designed to be better. It's a brand new place and the people we knew are people we've had great confidence in before and we already had experience with them and my father really liked them and they seemed to really care about him. It's an exclusive Alzheimer's unit, and one of the things I was impressed by was that they had a lot of materials for them to work with, and these are not just laminated paper cut-outs that the nurses had made but proper manipulatives and puzzles that clearly had been bought purposefully and an investment has been made to stimulate their minds. All patients have an iPod with their favorite music on it, and they do music therapy every day. It's a very homey place, and they've got 2 interior garden spaces that at unlocked all the time where my father can go outside. There are 2 glassed in patios where he can be seen, and he can sit out anytime he wants to. He's still in a locked unit, but it gives him a sense of independence and freedom.