Hickory Senior Living

This is a newer facility, but we weren't happy with dad's care here. I feel like the memory care staff isn't properly trained for that kind of care. They don't have a good variety of activities and don't encourage the residents to be interactive. I think it's definitely a better fit for assisted living.

I didn't care for the facility as much as others we looked at. The dining room looked small and not as nice. The facility consisted of four buildings that weren't connected to each other, with walkways that were hard to traverse with a walker. They used a pullcord system for residents to call for help, and we preferred a pendant system. I thought the staff were really nice though.

I really liked Country Cottage, probably the best out of all of the ones we toured. Unfortunately they have just recently shut down their location in Hoover and their other location was too far away for us to drive to.

Our family had an in person tour and the tour was nice but it felt really claustrophobic. There was not really an outside space or courtyard and it was not a stimulating environment what so ever.

Make sure to check into the facility thoroughly. It's a very nice facility. there is no transportation right now either. The room sizes are nice, you have a choice to buy a food plan with the facility. the communication is

No kitchen in any rooms. 210 square feet for 2,810 dollars seems way too expensive.

We weren't as impressed with this as much as Keestone. We passed a call button that was going off and when we asked our guide about it she said they must be with another patient.

We had a very nice tour of this community and the staff did a nice job in showing us around the community as well as answering our questions. My Uncle felt that this was just not what he was looking for.

[Removed] was very friendly and explained everything very clearly for us. He helped up figure out what level of care we would need for my father. The community is much smaller than others we visited and has more of a feel of home.

Besides being so expensive, it is okay. Some of the staff members are friendly. We have had Just minor issues. The facility itself is clean. My loved one has been here for a short period of time, but so far everything has been okay. Overall, I rate this property 3 stars because it is fair. It is not the best, but my loved one is comfortable here. My loved one has gotten to know the other residents.

basic ammenities and includes laundry service

Staff are friendly and personable. However, there has recently been staffing changes. So do your research and ask lots of questions.

My dad was with Dogwood for about 9 days during August and the way it turned out was just a horrible experience. He had advanced Alzheimer’s and we brought him here because they have a memory care unit. The manager of the facility told me, after I already paid for my dad to move in, that their staff was not trained well enough to take on a patient with Alzheimer’s and hospice wound up being the ones that took care of him the most. They gave him showers every other day, but the facility itself was only clean sometimes. The staff was courteous enough. The one thing that I thought was a real problem was the difference with the work shifts. They didn’t seem to communicate with each other. One of us would call to check on dad and ask them questions about his day (medications, meal times, etc) and if they weren’t the ones working then they didn’t know the answers. They just seemed to come on and do their job with no communication in between. I think they just didn’t want to take care of him because he required more care than they thought he would. Some of the meals they gave him were strange too. One night, it was a few pieces of cut up watermelon, 4 or 5 mandarin orange slices, a little bit of cottage cheese, and crackers. Another night, it was just a stale pimento cheese sandwich. After only being with them for a few days, they wound up having us move him somewhere else because they said they couldn’t help, but we still had to pay for the next month’s rent. Dad passed away before we ever were able to bring him back and they won’t refund us, even though he never actually got to use the room. The owner will not communicate with my family over the phone or even through email, only through physical mail. I requested to meet him in person and was told that he would not meet with me in person on the recommendation of his lawyer. I’ve contacted some help of my own to get us through this because of our experience, but I would not recommend this place to anyone.

Mom is having a hard time adjusting to living at this community. They do not seem to offer any of the activities we were told they had when we looked at this community. They do not offer transportation to the residents. It does not seem as though they offer a lot of food at dinner time. The community is clean and they have a patio outside. I would recommend asking a lot of questions when you tour this community.

So far, I am not impressed with this facility. When I did the initial tour, everything seemed great. However, there have been issues with medications being given on time, staff is not helpful when the resident needs help and the food is not that great. At this point, I am looking for a different facility because I believe that it shouldn't be this difficult, especially when the resident is paying thousands of dollars each month. One of their employees was telling me how the med techs are lazy and don't do their jobs and I was not the right person to share this with because that causes me to have less confidence in this facility. The service needs improvement.

I did not have a good experience. The staff turnover was crazy during the 3 months my mom was there. Also she fell multiple times and was in and out of hospital. I do not recommend this place. My mom passed in [date removed].

I would want other families to know that the facility is understaffed and there is a high turnover rate. If your loved one is high functioning senior who is more independent and can get around well and wants socialization, then the facility would be fine. It is more of a retirement community, not an assisted living facility. It is just not an ideal setting for someone who needs more care and assistance. It is not the most updated facility, hopefully they will be doing some more renovations soon. A lot of promises made up front were not what was delivered.

We toured Country Cottage and we didn't like the tour experience or how it looked in the very beginning. The room was very small and the community controlled the heating and cooling of the room. The gave us a call and informed us that the Hoover location is closing down and asked if we wanted to see another. We declined because we did not have a good first impression here.

The Blake was not very good about explaining all that they required during move in, they were not good explaining with the respect to medication. They did not do a very good job following through with promises with respect to vision services and exercises. They were not accommodating when it came to vision and hearing deficits. We just did not think it was a very good place. If your loved one does not need a lot of services, they should do well here.

We had trouble getting the most simple of questions answered, we ended up having to go through the administrator for answers because after asking the nursing staff multiple times we never got answers. This community was going through a change of ownership while our loved one was there, and we do not think they were as caring as the previous ownership.