Belmont Village

Look elsewhere!! The director [name removed] is extraordinarily unprofessional, emotionally unstable and weak. Unfortunately, the misdirection can be felt throughout the the facility especially for the residents. One of many examples: My 77 year old mother has been there for 6 weeks and the air conditioning has been stuck on the heater mode at 80 degrees the whole time despite repeated maintenance service requests and apparent attempts. We met the lady from the room 4 doors down that has the exact same problem. They are supposed to bathe her but they do not. They don’t get her to brush her teeth although she needs assistance. When I visit, I am so saddened, she has dirty clothes and body. I must make sure she bathes and make sure she brushes her teeth when I visit. It is completely inadequate. They have no trained counselors for emotional support, although my mother desperately needs one to help her through this traumatic transition. Instead there are sweet, however, under trained and underpaid “Pals” that check on them. The director, [name removed] intentionally intimidated and harassed my family while we were visiting my mother by getting directly in the middle of a family matter we were trying to handle privately. He overstepped his professional bounds by forbidding my mother and I to talk privately with the charge nurse. I hope his boss sees this as he should be immediately fired! I wish I could give more than one star because there are very kind staff and the food and location are quite good. However, until the directorship is much, much, much better, the whole facility suffers. The price is quite high and would be worth it if not for the extremely poor management, but I would not send a loved one to this particular location unless you find the management has changed. You will certainly find vacancies here, but there are plenty of other places you can chose from. Be forewarned!

My dad stayed here for 6 weeks before I took him home. In his first few days, he became very ill. Nothing was done to help him. After about a week, the entire facility was under quarantine. My dad lost 20 pounds during his stay. The nursing staff was not helpful and the aides were not allowed to help with issues. I received a call on a Friday that my dad needed depends, so I drove over in rush hour traffic. When I arrived, my dad was in a fetal position and talking out of his head. His blood pressure was extremely low. When I tried to get help, I was told they could not help. I took him home the next week.

There are few experiences in my life that I can say truly “haunt” me. To this day, observing my father — 90 years old with dementia — being abused at Belmont Village — stands out as a defining, horrific memory I will never be able to shake. The staff was woefully untrained in the thoughtful management of individuals with dementia. When simple measures to de-escalate a confused and frightened victim of Alzheimer’s were not employed, the staff opted to engage my father in ways that were nothing short of abusive. The message I received from the director at Belmont Village was as follows (verbatim): “If you don’t come over here now and remove your father from our premises, we will call the police and have them do so.” This is no exaggeration. When I arrived, the police were already there. My father — 90 and terrified — was crying, naked and bruised on the floor in the hallway outside his room. He was crying for his mom. He was broken and alone. There were no apologies from staff. Not a single “I’m sorry” from the administration. Just an insistence to remove him from their premises, as if we hadn’t been paying $4500/month for the past year and a half. I was heartbroken for my father, a frail and frightened shell of the WW2 hero he once was. And I was in disbelief that an institution could relate to a member of their community with dementia with such profound callousness and malice. My father has since passed away. I write this review with continued love and respect for the fine and noble human he always was — even through his journey with Alzheimer’s. And I hope any reader of this review will reconsider ever entrusting the care of their vulnerable parent to Belmont Village.

I am still struggling to recover from the horrific experience of entrusting the care of my father to the staff at Belmont Village. The humiliation and degradation he suffered was beyond anything I could have imagined. My dad suffered with dementia; as he struggled to make sense of a confusing, changing reality around him, the staff ultimately handled him with zero understanding of what individuals with Alzheimer’s require to feel safe. And while I could forgive a degree of ignorance, the absence of compassion from the administration added painful insult to injury. If you have a vulnerable parent, do not entrust their care to Belmont Village.

The staff is very very rude. I do not recommend them!!!!

Terrible! Nearly two years of complaints with little change. Complaints yield temporary improvements but never resolutions. I truly do not understand why we continue to have the same issues in an assisted living facility with housekeeping, laundry and hygiene. Now a recent incontinence issue has only further complicated things.

Don't believe what you see, because looks are very deceiving. My mother moved into the Belmont on a Sunday afternoon very vibrant and full of life and when I went to see her the next day, less than 24hrs. Later she was unable to walk on her own and was sitting in her own waiste.. So much waiste that her depends could NOT hold it all and it spilled onto the chair she was sitting in. The following day she was even worse.. We had to rush her next door via ambulance. If you care anything about your loved one, Don't take them to Belmont village.

At best mediocre! Senior staff has changed 3 times since Jan 2013 - a sign they can't get it right (regular staff PALS as they are called change ALL the time - no cohesion for a residents (those that rely & pay for them!). If you are looking for a place to "park" a loved one this is it! DO NOT EXPECT STAFF TO MOTIVATE THEM - THEY ARE KEEN ON TREATING THEM AS FURNITURE- move them from place to place. Observe meal times when a resident is finished they get wheeled away & deposited in their room. Activites are sparse - depending on when someone is motivated - few & far between! [removed] The exterior is worse! Lackluster at best! The residents are lined up outside & garden area is locked with alarm doors - translation- where the staff smokes (5 ft from residents windows) where they have staff gatherings but residents can't access unless the door is unlocked - you have to wonder why the garden area can't be accessed by residents -hmmm???!! [removed]

Nothing is what it appears, believe half of what they tell you, you'll never get the same answer twice, experts at telling you what you want to hear and not following through. There's only one nurse for the entire building and tends to no show alot with no backup, the visiting doctor may or not keep the appointment. I shudder to think of my mother's health if it weren't for the outside visiting nurse. So, if pricey parties and good food is your thing, I would think a cruise ship, a more enjoyable value.

After watching Belmont Village Turtle Creek “BVTC”(1) ignore my father and then throw him in a Psych ward for typical dementia related behavior; (2) being given no alternatives for his care except that he could come back to BVTC once he was ‘certified’ and ‘non-aggressive’ (whatever that might mean, a bit subjective…); (3) having had no communication from anyone on the Staff of BVTC, prior to him being thrown into the Psych ward, indicating Dad’s disease may be progressing beyond what they are able to care for at BVTC; (4) all while being charged an ˜ $7,500 “30 Day Notice” fee while he resided in the Psych ward they remanded him to, I am strongly warning you to beware of this place. Please look harder and consider putting your dementia suffering loved one in a facility that can handle dementia patients. We had no idea this could even happen – throwing a dementia patient in the Psych Ward because the place we had trusted him to, that specialized in dementia care we were told, apparently ran out of ideas? I would have thought a place designed to handle dementia patients, which I was lead to believe from the website BVTC was, would understand this and know how to handle the behaviors that a dementia patient might exhibit. But I was wrong. From the BVTC website: “Belmont’s range of signature, award-winning Memory Care programs designed to maintain mental acuity and function”. Well maybe when they feel a Memory Lane resident might be reaching the threshold of BVTC’s ability to assist and care for them, they should TELL YOU, the family, before they toss them into the county Psych ward! Maybe give you a little time to work things out and, at that time, the 30 day notice could start….? My Dad has dementia. If you are reading this, someone you love probably has it too. How much do you know about dementia? Have an expert in your family? Because we do not – and it is my belief BVTC used our lack of knowledge/experience against us, landing my Dad (who has run what would have been a Fortune 500 company in the 1970’s, has patents in his name, later ran a small business and retired at age 47), in the local County Psych Ward. When my family checked out BVTC, it had been open less than 90 days. It was not at capacity, which is perhaps why they allowed us to move Dad in, and sign him up for Circle of Friends (which about two weeks or so into his less than 100 day stay, he had become unable to participate in) at a cost of around ˜ $7500.00 (approximately) per month. Yup. ˜ Seventy Five HUNDRED dollars per month. One time when I visited, we saw an ambulance in the parking lot. When we could not find Dad in his room or elsewhere in the facility, we headed back to where we had seen the ambulance and looked inside – there was Dad. We were not informed by any of the staff that our Dad was in an ambulance, and we did not receive a telephone call or even a text. After Dad returned to his room after the hospital visit, he started screaming and writhing in pain with his lips curled up and eyes clinched shut. I had no idea why. I asked one of the Caregivers to please get a nurse. After waiting about 10 minutes, I asked again. I was told they had two nurses on site, but they were both with other residents. Meanwhile, Dad is having these pains, and due to his dementia, he cannot clearly communicate what is going on. After about 10 more minutes, I left Dad in his room (still in pain) and went out to find a nurse. Yes, I was pretty upset by now (due to this particular service failure, plus a couple other service failures that had happened in the three days I had been there) so I came out of his room and yelled down the hall to get a nurse in here RIGHT NOW. The director, Tara Arancibia, responded by telling me not to yell at her staff. They did not provide any alternate places for Dad to be placed. (Thankfully, the folks at the Psych Ward were able to). They just sent us a bill for the remaining balance. Thanks, Belmont Village! While BVTC is gorgeous to look at and has fabulous food, they FAIL on the paramount needs – staffing, capability to care for anything but early stage dementia patients, communication with family, doctors, and pharmacies, in my humble opinion. We thought a dementia care specific facility might know more than us when it came to dementia and what to expect and how to go forward as it progressed. What this place is not, imho, is a well-equipped, experienced, well managed memory/Dementia Care facility. It may be ok, imho, if your loved one is in the beginning stages of dementia, has mild dementia, like that. But once it gets to where communication is an issue, and/or the behaviors become unmanageable for the staff – look elsewhere. I would compare it to being in the Little League when what we needed was full on Professional league. I love my Dad very much. If I had known then what I know now, we would have never darkened the door of Belmont Village Turtle Creek.

Horrible place. I have my mother here and have nothing but problems. Gets calls in the middle of the night for the smallest issues. End up driving out there in the middle of the night just because she has trouble sleeping. I mean who doesn't have trouble sleeping. Director is rude and she has a temper. I am looking to get her out.

I had a parent who lived here for 2 years and it went down drastically. The apt, always smelled and I had to clean it most of the time. The activities were slim to none. My parent was in The Circle of Friends and 3/4's of the residents in that program never participated. The PALS were HARD to find. There is one nurse for each huge floor. The Communication is very poor. The rates fluctuated like the Stock Market! There have been 3 Directors there since August of 2011! None of your concerns are ever answered but they don't hesitate to gripe about your loved one. I would NOT choose this facility at all!!!