Benchmark Senior Living

I'd rather send my loved one to a dump. It was dirty, no air conditioning (in August). The staff was horrible and they were NOT honest.Worst experience I've ever had. They need to improve on everything, the place was awful.

I recently was given a tour by the Executive Director on a Tuesday. The place felt cold no activities was going on some residents was complaining , and the care staff and nurses seems stressed and overworked. We didn’t get a warm vibe from this place. We were being rushed by this Executive Director and felt she was pushing us. One of our friends suggested this place as his mom lives there also he said there was a lot of turnover with staffing due to management difficulty in retaining their staff.Our tour was not pleasant and maybe some advice to your new Executive Director (smile more) we are guess visiting. I was told that the former Executive Director was a people person. Well we have decided to move our mom somewhere else as we didn’t feel as welcome by your Executive Director ?? and do not look forward to giving a good review.

My loved one was previously a resident at The Atrium at Rocky Hill and the experience at this facility was not good. I wouldn't recommend this facility to care for anything, let alone a family member. In the 'locked down' Memory Care Unit, my loved one left the facility unnoticed and was missing for over four hours. Incompetency and non accountability on The Atrium at Rocky Hill's part.

We had a horrible experience at Buckland court. They lied to us and we caught them in numerous lies which of course they did not like. We moved my parents out after 1 month. We even contacted the elderly omnibus from CT and the attorney General and Buckland court corporate headquarters.

The Falls is poorly managed and their only focus is on profits. They skimp, ignore and dodge anything that requires funding. For example they’re thrilled to show off the newly renovated facility however they don’t disclose that the HVAC system doesn’t work, the bistro gathering space is never open, they’ve been through several chefs in the past year, the $[removed] activity fee buys you someone turning on the TV or moving an employee from another area to quickly come up with a word game. The Fitness Instructor from the gym had to teach bridge, but had never played and didn’t know how, and was responsible for Easter egg decorating. We use the family dining room on occasion and every time we go we find it dirty, dishes haven’t been done - which only requires turning on the dishwasher, there are no pots and pans, no cleaning supplies and we’ve had to go down to the dining room to get utensils, glasses and napkins. They have mailboxes but apparently they weren’t set up correctly (and never fixed after a year) so mail is delivered haphazardly, and inconsistently and normally just left at their dining table for the resident to find. Packages can take days to be delivered and on several occasions we received packages for someone else. The food is horrible! They use poor quality ingredients, nothing is fresh, the menu is extremely limited and never changes, the run out of the most basic things. There is no where for a resident to get a water, cup of coffee or snack during the day. They are always short staffed yet continue to bring in new residents knowing they don’t have the staff to support them. My mom was told they could no longer arrive at the scheduled time to get my dad ready in the morning because they had to take care of several new residents. My father went to get a haircut at the falls and they lost him for 3 hours and no one knew where he could be. This was frightening for my mother. We’ve had several instances while visiting where we had to assist a resident back to their apartment and we’ve witnessed several instances of residents escaping. The front desk isn’t always staffed because of ongoing staffing shortages and the need for the front desk staff to leave to fill in elsewhere. Residents wear buttons to push when they need help. However on at least 2-3 instances the entire system was down and they have no backup in place. One evening my father got up to ho to the bathroom and my mother pushed the button because she couldn’t get him off the toilet by herself. No one responded. She continued to push the button and pulled the emergency cord but no one came. Finally after about 40 minutes she went out into the hall to flag someone down. We don’t know why no one ever responded but we did learn that the emergency system wasn’t functioning. The facility has only two elevators for all 4 floors. One elevator went down and it took them over 6 weeks to get it repaired. It’s a serious safety concern to only have one functioning elevator for all the residents, staff and visitors. I could go on and on but the point is The Falls is not a place to put your loved ones. I think they count on the fact that most residents won’t speak up and no longer have the mental acuity to recognize the significant deficiencies. This is not low income housing however that’s how it’s run. My mother is paying the equivalent of a monthly mortgage for a $2.5mil home to live there and is absolutely not getting services or amenities that even come close to what she should get for her money. I do want to say that the staff is wonderful! They work hard, care about the residents and want to do a good job. The problem is they have no support from management, they’re trying to compensate for the ongoing staffing shortage and they’re afraid of losing their jobs. The staff don’t feel comfortable identifying safety concerns for fear of losing their jobs. I’ve been told, but cannot confirm, that part of the reason for the staffing shortage are the very low salaries. I don’t know if this is accurate, and I hope it’s not, but these residents are paying a ridiculous amount of money to be there which should certainly cover above average salaries and benefits for these critical workers. I’ve personally told staff I would be a reference if they could find a job in a better place.

My father-in-law was there up until he went to hospital [date removed]. He passed away at the hospital [date removed]. The Facility is charging us for the the whole month of March and 5 days in April even though we had the place cleaned out in 1 week. [amount removed] for 1 month of a shared room and his roommate would smoke even though my father-in-law was on oxygen and no one did anything about it. The only good Person there was the activities director [name removed]

During Covid spikes, 3rd floor Memory Care patients were confined to their rooms for weeks. Completely isolated. Dining room is closed; they eat alone in their rooms. Engagement is coloring pages & TV, most aren’t capable of coloring. Their isolation continues for weeks, mental & physical skills further decline. Visitation during this time is either not allowed or severely time restricted to the first-floor library. Residents become depressed & put on higher doses of psychiatric meds. Staff is unresponsive, act defensively, and make arranging for contact such as FaceTime seem like a huge burden for them. Many times they forget the scheduled FaceTime & will not answer the phone. High staff turnover in 2022: Overall, regional & sales directors, head memory care nurse, billing. Staff seems perpetually put out & burdened by visitors, even with simple tasks like letting people in/out of the building or memory floor. Dusty, worn furnishings, smelly. Noisy dining room. Unattended residents fall.

They were very friendly. They were charging more for the food but were not feeding my loved one. My impression was that things were different. Nobody seemed to care, about my loved one, and they did not allow her to go to the bathroom as often. They were in constant confusion about the medication. There was a turnover in staff. The place was in disarray. I felt deceived and was not getting what I was paying for. The aides were not really trained with working on memory care issues.

The lack of accountability with staff when you find your loved one in the same clothes as the night before and a soaked with urine depends! It's never anyone's responsibility because the buck gets passed! Outside agencies come in to assist the lack of staff. These residents here never know who is coming thru their rooms? No room privacy either, staff have no respect to even knock before they enter with their own agenda! Don't put your loved one in this depressing unsafe place.

My mom had a short stint at The Village. I had read a great article about how they have “The Best Memory Care”. I talked to several people that had a grandparent living here and said it was very good. The Google reviews were above average compared to some other places. They even had a sign out front at the facility touting their world class memory care. The salesperson [name removed] had a great sales pitch and this place sounded VERY nice, and I was looking forward to moving my mom here. It was a whole other story once we moved my mom into her room. There were NO activities the entire time my mother was there. The staff had TERRIBLE communication skills, couldn't answer the simplest of questions about day to day life there. Stay away from this place

After 12 months of my mom residing at Evolve/Rye, Benchmark acquired and took over operationally. Since the new executive director took over, the lack of regard for resident safety coupled with no continuity of care, I moved my mom to a much safer facility with exceptional nursing and support care. Concerns were voiced, in writing, in person and via numerous phone calls. I was always met with: "this is being addressed" "we understand your concerns" ..... NOTHING. The medical errors, including over 10 covid related deaths this past summer 22', incorrect medications administered, doping resident's to keep them in their rooms, a sexually aggressive resident allowed in after he was removed from two other facilities, high attrition and agency staff mishandling residents aggressively, improper billing practice's. The list goes on. DO NOT CONSIDER BENCHMARK AT RYE, they increased their room fee by $[removed] all the while decreasing the food and consumable quality. They are not truthful.

Everything at Village at Buckland Court was terrible. They let my mom starve and did not feed her, the administration lied about incidents that happened. We saw other elderly patients not getting the care they should get. Never would put a lived one in this place. We reported them to the state of CT and wrote to corporate head quarters but nothing was done. Very disappointed in the whole process.

My mom was here for 4 months and it was a terrible experience. She ended up rushed to the hospital 3x The main nurse would call me up and yell at me and no one was friendly. They couldn’t even get a scheduled call to occur correctly. For the high price I would look elsewhere.

Great marketing but the Fairfield location has failed us. Aides are not trained and management is condescending. Where do I begin, broken bones under aides care, forced to lay in a solid bed all night, told to urinate in a diaper because staff won't respond to pendant calls for a minimum of 45 minutes, aides unable to transfer resident from bed to wheel chair, on and on. Management is full of excuses and their fallback is "Benchmark policy", which is very, very inconsistent. Don't put your loved on in this facility!

I would say to not go to this community. The business model for this type of care it seems like it is all the same. There is one person taking care of too many people that need care. There is no way that this one person would be able to care for all of the residents at the same time. It just did not seem like things were well organized. The staff that were there they were trying to do the best that they could in the situation that they were in. Any time that we needed something they provided it but when there is one person for so many people it is stressful to the worker also.

We understand the staffing shortage across the industry and the staff there are kind and do their best they are being let down by in house management, all the way to corporate ownership. They recently went up again on rent, while going way down on services and care. Management has not taken a pay cut. The nursing staff has been cut, to where there is no longer 24 hours nurses. Nothing is followed through from one nurse to the next. The food used to be good but now they serve a lot of processed food and carbs. Pasta, frozen pizza, chicken fingers, hot dogs, hamburgers on a HOT DOG roll and they over serve deserts. Aides not properly trained. Not caring if the person needs to use the bathroom or be cleaned up. They will leave them in soiled cloths or undergarments all day. Residents are left isolated. It's not all the aides fault, the fault lies with management/ownership. It's the proverbial profits over people. It has now gone beyond neglect to bordering abuse.

The tour for this community was very rushed with this community and they did not have what my loved one needed. They only had double rooms and I did not want my loved one in a double room. I did not like the tour due to it being rushed and I could not really see due to rushing.

When we were given the tour and had a family meeting, I made the mistake of believing what they said. My LO was a wanderer. I knew he would not be able to distinguish his room from others' rooms. "No problem, they said. Our staff can handle that." Within 2 weeks, they started calling me to complain that he was going into other residents' rooms. Then they started to insist that I hire someone to be with him 24/7. Any communications that I had with the director of Memory care and the director of nursing felt like being attacked by bullies. I finally moved my LO to another MC facility where the care is so much better and I have peace.

If you are looking for a proactive, adaptive, and collaborative partnership with a long-term care community for your loved one who has dementia, Arbors of Bedford is NOT for you.   On the other hand, if you are fond of a reactionary relationship, poor communication, mediocre care, stale enrichment and an infinite helping of glad-handing lip service, look no further, Arbors of Bedford is the community for you!   Bring your checkbook and come on down!

In one month's time, between [date removed], over 30 beloved family members perished while in the care of Arbors of Bedford. Approximately 1/2 of the vulnerable lives entrusted to their care. A year into a global pandemic. How could one community be so ill-prepared to protect those who needed them the most? "A BENCHMARK MIND & MEMORY EXPERIENCE" - I think not. Shameful.