Brookdale Middleton Stonefield

The person that showed me around Clare Bridge of Middleton was very helpful. He gave me a tour and showed me the facility and the amenities that were available. The dining room was nice and clean. The staff seemed like they took good care of the people who needed attention. He also did follow up, but I told him I had to put it off because I won’t need it anymore for mom.

My husband is in Clare Bridge for about a year now. It's near my home. They've restricted my visits to two hours. I was visiting him all the time, but there was some bad incident. My son is the guardian, so they can do anything they want him to do. I'm not happy with the staff. Four months ago, he caught nora virus. He had a temperature of over 101, his blood pressure was 83/43 and I took him to the hospital. They told me he was fine and they would check him in two hours. I think he would have been dead by then. They try to keep him in bed all the time. He'd like to come home.

My Dad lived at this facility and there are pluses and minuses. The facility is clean and I love the home-like setting. There is a fireplace in the "living room" which my Dad loved when he first arrived. The rooms are arranged in a figure eight, so it is easy for residents to get around. My Dad would take his walker out to the couch and lay down in front of the fire. The activity director is very good, but my Dad declined rapidly and couldn't take part for long. I felt as though the staff devoted time to the people with the least dementia and ignored some of the others. As my Dad got weaker he slept a lot and they usually just left him in his room while they attended to other residents who were more aware. Then at lunch time, I would see them come in and hoist him into his chair, eyes closed,and slumped over and wheel him to his table. They wedged him against a wall so he would not try to get up and be "disruptive." They also lost his possessions often and didn't seem to care about finding them. Although his name was in them, they lost his glasses, 2 watches and at least 10 paris of pants. Also, the pants that he did still have, started to all be ripped. My Dad was not strong enough to rip them and the staff helped him get dressed and changed his Depends, so it must have been the staff who caused the rips. Then they would still dress him in those pants with a 12 inch rip in the back or near the front zipper. The reason we ultimately moved him was that Clare Bridge is part of Brookdale Senior Living, an out-of-state corporation. The facility was fairly pricey to begin with and they added on for each little task they need to help him with. For instance, they charged $118 just to mix his Carnation Instant Breakfast, which I supplied. (Other residents also used this, so they actually made a pitcher which they poured from. I thought that amount charged per resident seemed excessive). As his dementia progressed, the cost almost doubled from the original rate -- with no relief in site. We moved him to make his funds last a little longer. Since it was not locally owned, the rate increases were fixed and corporate was not willing to adjust them to keep him there.