My parents lived in assisted living at Spring Gardens for just a few months. My initial impression was that it was a beautiful, clean, friendly place with caring, dedicated staff. The receptionists quickly learned my name and always greeted me warmly when I came.
The kitchen and cleaning staffs were amazing - always cheerful and kind to the residents and their guests. The cnas and med techs were attentive and patient with my aging parents. There were many fun activities and outings, and the food was usually quite good. (I especially enjoyed the salad bar.) i appreciated that meals were served on demand from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm - so accommodating.
I was also very impressed with the various entertainment, especially during the Christmas holiday. Mom thoroughly enjoyed the Valentines dance in February!
Beyond all of that, the thing I loved most at Spring Gardens was the wonderful residents who warmly welcomed my parents and took the time to get to know them and befriend them!
As time went on and my parents began to settle in, I started to notice some areas which had room for improvement. Services we had signed up and paid for were not being done, and/or my parents would be charged for services, like laundry, that we did not sign up for.
There was also a LOT of pressure from administrators to change my parents' primary caregivers to the in-house medical staff. Though convenient, it quickly became an obvious conflict of interest.
Another concern was the staff's lack of training on "redirecting" residents with dementia. (Mom has Alzheimer's.) One staff member told me that when there was dementia related training made available, few staff ever attended. (Why wasn't such training mandatory?)
When the time came to move Mom to memory care, my family spent several hours, on different days, in the Spring Gardens memory care unit observing the way the residents were cared for. I found the atmosphere very different from assisted living. Of course a great deal of that had to do with the diminished cognitive abilities of the sweet residents there, but even more so was the stark difference in lighting, furnishings, layout, and activities. There was minimal natural light and the common area was small and cramped. Residents were often found sitting in front of a t.v. Rarely did we see them engaged in activities. The unit always felt understaffed and lacking. We checked out seven other facilities in the valley and found several we liked much better.
The bottom line. If your loved one does not have dementia, then Spring Gardens is a lovely place to live, though not perfect.
However, if your loved one needs, or will soon need, the additional attention of memory care, I suggest looking elsewhere.
Provider Response
Thank you for your honesty and for giving us your feedback. I'm sorry to hear that you didn't have the best experience possible with our memory care and I have brought up your comments here with management! I would like to stress that we do host mandatory dementia care training regularly for our staff. We even had memory care expert Eric Collette come to speak to the team recently! At any rate, we're sorry to see you go but wish you all the best. Don't hesitate to reach out to us if you need anything. -Carsten Ellsworth