Hickory Senior Living

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.

I would want others to know that my mom was in an assisted living facility before this facility that was amazing. We had to move her because one day she walked out, so we had to find a more secure facility. She moved from assisted living to a locked down place so she went down-hill quite quickly. The staff members here were as kind as they could be to her. Overall, the things that weren't great about the facility were no fault of Country Cottage.

We did a pop up visit where mom is staying and it was around 8:30pm and people were just wandering around and one resident was [Removed] so this concerned us. So we did another pop in visit and it was the same no supervision around. She fell and they didn't even report it to us so she has bruises and a knot on her head. We don't want to be exposed to care like this. we removed her as quick as we could. We are not even sure if she was getting her medication.

I've been talking to my mother and siblings, and they have mentioned that Plain View is a nice place, but they don't have good dietary choices. One day they had pancakes for dinner. I think its a good place but they don't have the adequate administration to handle the place. We would like to see more activities and better food options. They need a full-time dietitian at hand. My sister gave me the name and number of the director, and it has been 2 months since I called him and I still have not heard from him. That is a red flag.

My loved one is treated well by the staff at this community. The staff is very friendly and the meals are always very nutritious. My loved one is eating well. They provide a mixture of activities for the residents such as exercise programs. They also take him outside or to walk around the building as he pleases.

Ms. Jessica Peterman was splendid and we loved the lemonade and cookies provided us. Nevertheless the overall feel of the facility reminded me of a summer lodge or camp for the elderly... not a permanent home. Particularly more hallway space is needed in the Dementia facility.

If you go on weekends you will not find any nurses only teens there to care for all the patients been there saw it myself then once they had problems with a patient, when hospice got there there was no one in site had to search for an employee then the patient was locked in the room !!! Too expensive to have to provide such a long list of supplies also extra for hair cuts etc just ab all snacks were gone from a patients room found out several had seen employees getting them !! Not to mention the number of items that came up missing !! Someone is making some money on the side apparently bc bill from one month to the next was $500 difference !! I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLACE people need to be able to go check on loved ones at any time to keep eye on what goes on just beware bf you sign up anywhere

Breakfast is served very early between 6-6:30 AM and Supper is served at 3:30 PM. The people who live there complain about having to eat early and getting hungry before bedtime and having to wait from 6:30 to noon to eat again. Only activities is Bingo. They use to go on outings and have more activities. They only have bingo about 3 times a week. They have a bus but never take people anywhere and use to have singings but dont' have any activities. The picture of them having act. on website isn't from this facility. I have tried to find out who owns this facility and my family member doesn't want me to call the owners but when I visit all I hear is complaints about time they eat and only get very little food for Supper. Sandwich chips or soup or something very light and thy at at 3:30 PM They don't have a variety of food chicken is served constantly. I wished I knew who owned the company and how to get in touch with them. Since no one will tell me I guess I can get in touch with someone above the owners to find out what time meals are suppose to be served and if they are not suppose to have activities and if they are not suppose to get a well balance meal at supper.

Bad food. Cold & Tasteless. No activities.

My Aunt needed more assistance than Country Cottages was able to provide. They should not have accepted her knowing there was not adequate staff to tend to her needs. As you consider Country Cottages, please be sure to ask about night staffing, or the lack of. I would only recommend this facility for those who need just minimal assistance.

My wife visits 3 or 4 times a week for lunch and dinners, the food is horrible. Sometimes you can't recognize what it is. The support staff doesn't seem to like their jobs, with the exception of one or two employees. On one visit I saw 5 employees in a lounge watching a video, one person was sleeping. When I asked about the soap opera they were watching I was informed by a friendly staff member that it was a training video. When they emerged from the lounge area they had their arms crossed across their chests. If their frowns had gotten any worse they would have been stepping on their bottom lips. This industry has high turnover and you can tell when someone does not like their job. If your employees aren't happy it will trickle down to the people who are paying to live there. The residents seem starved for interaction and attention. There are two scheduled trips a week, Tuesdays for shopping and Fridays for a meal. The van that transport the residents has been either in need of repair or the driver was sick and so 3 trips have been cancelled. Maybe I'm too picky but there is a lack of happiness because the majority of the staff is unhappy to be there, there is very little interaction between the staff and their residents. There is no hobby or craft room for residents. We've also have had some trouble understanding extra charges that we hope to work out with the Country Cottage. It can be hard to get ahold of someone in the office. We've had to request the staff retrieve our loved one for outings, and hope that becomes policy. The residents need to be reached out to and reminded about activities and outings. When you walk in, I hate to use this word but it's "dead." No one is ever outside walking around, there are grounds but from what I've seen it seems the staff prefers residents to stay in their rooms. It takes a trained individual to be able to assess the residents' needs and if new hires can sleep through training videos without repercussions it just doesn't even look right. If something we requested was not taken care of it seems the blame is passed rather than the issue being resolved.

?? WARNING: Please Beware of Seabrook Pointe When considering a facility to make your loved one’s permanent home, please BEWARE of Seabrook Pointe. If you’re looking for a place that: • Lacks cleanliness (the lobby is the only area cleaned consistently; residents’ rooms are “supposed” to be cleaned weekly but often aren’t cleaned at all). • Employs mostly incompetent staff (from the Executive Director down—95% fall short), and • Fails to provide sufficient care (they don’t even seem to know the meaning of sufficient), …then Seabrook Pointe is the place for you. To be fair, not all staff are unprofessional: • [name removed], the Nurse – always welcoming, handled situations with genuine care. • The young activities lady – consistently kind and tried her best, even when our loved ones declined to participate. Unfortunately, the tall older lady with the crooked wig, who seems to oversee Memory Care, is the absolute worst. Multiple aides have openly said she uses profanity with residents

Complaints are never addressed. Medication errors and or simply taken away without knowledge to residents or their families. Food is bad. All should get a choice instead of eating exact same thing all else do. Portions are inadequate. Much much room for improvement.