Charter Senior Living

Emeritus was a very clean, well kept up facility. The staff was efficient and friendly. The staff changed over during the 4 months my mom was there and that was a little disturbing. The head nurse and other staff changed. My mom chose not to participate in a lot of activities but it seemed there was many available. The Physical Rehab people there were great. The food was ok mom said. Mom felt safe there.

There are a couple of things I am disappointed in. We are there for memory care, they told me they never use psychotropic drugs, after speaking with the doctor, that's not true. The food is very high in carbohydrates with not much protein in it. As far as the staff is concerned, at first, there were some people left over from the old management that were good, and now there seems to be a bit of a turnover. They used to be Paradise and now they have new management as Encore, and they still have a ways to go to get the program together. I like the grounds, they have very nice grounds, and it's fenced so it's secure. Where we were before there was no fence so there was always a concern about memory care residents sneaking out. They seemed to have the attitude that it's not good to have a lot of medication, and that was very important to me.

The people were very helpful, during the short time we were there. There were some things that they weren't able to accommodate for, like rails on the bed. They were good while we were there, and they called us right away when there was a fall. It just wasn't the right place for our needs.

My father lives in the memory unit. The facility is very clean, has lots of natural light, and is attractive. His room has a sliding glass door (which of course can only be opened a few inches) that looks out to the pond and willow tree. There is a walking path around the pond and outdoor courtyards (all secure.) There are many activities throughout the day, including guest musicians and fun exercise classes. The only negative is the food but the assistant director is currently working with the kitchen to improve the situation. I would recommend that the family try to be as involved as possible, especially in the first two months of transition to a memory care unit. Try to be your loved one's advocate, learn the routines, and let the staff know their likes, dislikes, and any concerns.

This had the look and feel of a nursing home. We were not looking for that type of environment.

Overall this is a pretty nice place. It's clean, looks nice, and the staff are all very friendly. They always seem to be a bit understaffed, however, and I feel like my loved one needs a bit more attention than she gets normally. They're always very responsive and happy to help if I point out anything I'd like done, though. I also like the pricing structure, most of the services they provide are simply included in the base price, so you don't have to worry about the price increasing drastically from a la carte services.

They don't really deal with memory care, she was ok, but the caregivers there were not trained for memory care. They worked with her pretty well. They were mostly clean and friendly. I would use them again, if I had to use rehab again.

Staff is helpful and friendly. Common area bathrooms are not as clean as I would like. Activities are baseline, but my mom seemed to really enjoy the scenic drive through Seymour/Oxford. Some of the food is not the best quality, e.g., tomato rice soup, turkey cheese sandwich. Soup is watery and the sandwich is not substantial enough.

Everyone was very helpful

There are many things that are very nice here. But there are a couple of things that I complained about. When I moved in the shower stall was NOT clean. I complained and the lady (after cleaning it ) said "you mean you want the walls of the shower cleaned too". I know that I moved in on Sept.1 during a major holiday but things did not go smoothly, Starting Tues. things went much better. My apartment is nice, the people here are helpful and cheerful. I think that they could do a better job of cleaning( not only showers) But I do like it here. I had never seen this facility before I moved in. Food is much better than I had before

The first, and most important thing I want to stress, if you are thinking of putting a loved one in Clare Bridge of M.C. is don't do it if your loved one has advanced Alzheimer's disease. If your loved one is in stage 6 or 7, you may not want to go that route. It is important to remember that this facility is considered an assisted living facility, even though every resident has some type of dementia. Which means, they are NOT allowed to restrain the residents at all, even if that means they are going to be at risk for falls. Sure, I don't like to see anyone restrained, and, it is extremely rough on an Alzheimer's sufferer. However, this rule also means that they can't even have railings on their beds. And, alarms on wheel chairs and beds only alert the staff that someone is getting up when they shouldn't be. Therefore, all those who are at risk of falling must be kept out in the common areas (or the nurse's office) where they can be seen. That can be a problem for those with advanced A.D. This is not a fault of the staff at Clare Bridge. They are doing the best they can under the circumstances. And, although the ratio of on-duty staff to residents is not bad (it's much better than in a nursing home), they can't be expected to keep an eye on everyone, every minute of the day and night. I explained at what stage my loved one was at (end of stage 6) and was assured they could take care of her. But her agitation and confusion (which is common at that stage of A.D.) ended up having the nursing staff get orders for more medication to help calm her down. This included anti-psychotic drugs. Now, this is the order of her physician (and I won't go into how I feel that the Drs. are poorly trained on care of A.D. patients). And, again, the staff can only be expected to do so much. But I don't think anti-psychotics are the answer. Unfortunately, I don't know what IS! If I had known how things were going to turn out, I don't think I would have put my loved one in this facility, just because it just wasn't the right fit for her. I know Clare Bridge says their goal is to provide care for dementia patients till the end of their lives. But sometimes that just isn't going to be possible, in my opinion. I do have to say though, it is good that they allow Hospice in the facility. Having said all of the above, this facility looks good, is kept clean and smells good. The staff is very friendly and helpful. The food is pretty good and they give the residents more than enough of it (even the cooks are very friendly to the visitors!). And they do the best they can to help the residents who aren't able to feed themselves. Clare Bridge is VERY secure. You won't have to worry about your loved one getting out of the building on their own. From a professional viewpoint, I think the administration needs to work on their policies and procedures, to make sure all staff is on the same page, so to speak. I witnessed several miscommunications between staff members. Also, there were some verbal discrepancies on things I was told by different employees (mainly right before and after admission). I also think they need more work on their activities program (or possibly it is that they need to hire more educated staff? I don't know). It seemed like at least one staff person was rather disorganized (although very sweet and good with the residents) when trying to carryout activities with the residents. Overall, Clare Bridge is a great facility for those with some types of dementia (those in early stages of A.D. or other types of dementia where they aren't difficult to take care of). I would recommend it to anyone, whose loved one fits into one of those categories.

In my case, I had to make a decision really really quickly and I didn't have a lot of time but they really went out of their way to accomodate me. Once I went to the place it was much more and I winded up paying much more. Their intial response was very pleasant and they made little small gestures and I appreciated that but otherwise they had a lot of extras that I didn't know about that kept driving the price up, but I would say that on the whole they worked hard to accomodate us and I appreciated that. We haven't gotten to the point where I want to be they do try, the people appear to be nice and gentle, and that's what you need, gentle. The day of the move, she didn't act like she wanted to come, so the person who's the director, Michael, he called and said I'll treat her to a hair salon appointment and she let me get her ready and get over there. The key so far is it is more civilized.

Biggest complaint is food. I find staff very helpful and friendly. Facilities are up to date. Lately dinning room seems to be short staffed. There are activities scheduled for most of the day, from exercise to soap making. Choose what and if you like. As I said in prior writeups, food menus seem to be a challenge.

I can only tell you how my mom feels about it. She is in assisted living there and has helpers come in to aid in getting her to the bathroom and back. She calls me complaining many times a week to say that she waits long periods of time before anybody comes. She thinks the food there is pretty good. She never participates in the activities there, so I can't comment on them.

My experience at Charter is mixed bag. Starters the location is perfect and common areas are cleaned, but the rooms were not getting cleaned once a week as promised, they still are not. The facility had a great group of people talking care of mom and that was important. However they have issues keeping caregivers and med techs so people are often over worked or not there and then my mom's care suffers. The sales people get people to come, but also make caregivers uncomfortable due to difference yet they have influence with the administration. When I get more time, I may explore other options for my mother unless things change. They are failing at keeping the staff that does a good job..

Charter Senior Living could definitely improve on the food and maintenance. They are "renovating" right now but it's just cosmetic stuff and the building is old. One of the elevators was broken for like 5 days and that to me is just unacceptable. Most of the staff is really friendly and the director works her butt off.

No matter what your family member needs an advocate. The supplies we pay for tend to go missing. My dad has gone several days without being bathed or having his clothes changed. For the most part it's a good facility with good people but it's hard for them to keep the staff. So there is a lot of turn over and the customer suffers.

What i like most is the location and that it's a smaller group of residents than it was at the last place she was at. They could improve on being more organized, more aides to assist residents, and more activities.

Always available to discuss needs. Willing to work with family to ensure patients are cared for. Limited resources for bed ridden patients. Limited resources for transferring patients needing physical assistance (bed to chair, chair to bed). Activities - need to include patients who are not able to physically participate because they are bed ridden. Food - menu options need to be expanded. Need to provide more advanced knowledge of food menu options. Be able to accommodate food restrictions for patients.

Putting humans in a warehouse for old people is a tragic experience. Memory Care is the worst. Charter Senior Living is a for profit enterprise. Costs are cut to make a profit. This showed in some of the low quality caregivers they hired and some of the med techs they hired. The people who worked there were a mixed bag. Some were caring and attentive to my wife and some just ignored her or did not try to help her. When I tried to get answers to medical questions, it was extremely difficult. One of the med techs was as helpful as she was able. There is not a medical doctor affiliated with the place that I could see. The applications for payment to medicare for my wife's medical care were made by nurse practitioners or physicians assistants. Of course, even though they were being paid, they were not available to answer questions. As for the food, Memory Care did not receive the same quality of meals that the general population did. Some of the meals in MC were OK, a few were good, and most were deficient in protein and vegetables. Any time a dish was to have meat or chicken in it, you had to search carefully to find the little shreds of meat or chicken that were there. My wife loved the pink lemonade. Usually there was only enough for one serving. Pinching pennies just went too far.