Senior Lifestyle - Main

I am speaking about the personal care. They need to get their act together. Lack of communication, screwing up appointments for my loved one. It has been a complete mess from day 1. The place is clean, people seem nice and my loved one has made friends but they just can’t get their act together on the administrative side. The one nurse gave me wrong information and it takes asking multiple times to get an answer. Completely frustrated but they say they are working on it. The primary care doctor associated with the place is a life saver. The people at the memory care side are amazing. My loved one is not ready for that side yet.

We had our mom there since end of June. They pushed us to get her in at the low rate, just to find out they raised the rate 2 months later. UGH! Still waiting to hear what they are going to do about that. At least, twice so far she's gone with out her laundry being cleaned for at least 11 days. Finally called corporate about it, cause it seems to be get better, and then they fall back to their old ways. We're hoping that it works out. Staff is nice.

Ive called a few times,talk to someone then they never call back

The biggest drawback is the dining services. Even though the food is good, the dining room staff is disorganized and very mismanaged. Sometimes you can sit for a half-hour or more without the first person coming to the table with basic water or coffee. Disengaged bussers stand idly by in corners without any notice of dirty dishes or empty drinks that need to be tended to. Once food orders are taken, we residents often wait for 1/2 hour or more before anything comes, and then it seems half the time something on the order arrives incorrectly. Oversight of the dining room staff is poor. Getting someone's attention is practically futile. Brookdale must pay poorly which is reflected in the quality of some (not all) of the dining room staff.

My father is doing pretty well since his move to this community. However there is room for improvement in this community. They have over promised some things that they have not followed through with. I will say the personal care they provide needs improvement. The staff is good, but they do fall short in some areas. Nothing is perfect. I would recommend the assisted living portion of this community, but not the memory care.

We pay $10,000 per month to have our relative here and while the facility is new the food is monotonous and quality care is lacking. Residents often roam the halls unsupervised and get into each others rooms. While the supervisors say they meet state staffing requirements, we expected better care and attention. It was gotten to the point where we bring in our own paid people to care for our relative, adding more than 50% to the cost of this already expensive facility. In short, it is not living up to its own standards or our expectations.

Move in date on contract didn't not agree with actual move in date (over 2 weeks later) Other than getting lists for moving services and home health aides, there is no real move in assistants Always a nice visit since people are genuinely happy there (residents and workers)

I toured on three separate occasions. If you are looking for independent living then this is a good option within the city of Atlanta. The assisted living is another story: Your loved one will be banished to the assisted living floors. The sales staff will show you all the great amenities of the building, but fail to mention that assisted living residents don't really have the use of these amenities without the help of a family member. Depressing best describes the assisted living floors and because this is a for profit corporation the staffs hands are tied to think for themselves or the residents. We took this off the list after realizing that the sales staff point blank lied about residents true options.

The Breakers was designed for senior independent living - emphasis on INDEPENDENT. Over time, more residents needed a higher level of care, so management brought in an outside company, Custom Home Care, Inc., to provide optional assisted living-style services under the “Catered Living” banner. These services are available to all residents, but the 4th and 5th floors are designated “Catered Living” floors. Both floors are staffed with “concierges” and there is a small dining room on 4. The Breakers does NOT have a skilled nursing facility. My mother was a resident at The Breakers for several years. In the beginning, this residence was appropriate for her needs. But she gradually progressed from living independently to requiring a live-in caregiver 24/7. And as her health declined, so did the quality of “Catered Living” services she received at The Breakers. The building and grounds appear clean and well maintained; public areas were refurbished in early 2014 and apartments are spacious and bright, with great views. Facilities, activities and events are above-average. Having medical offices, a beauty parlor, and other services in the building is a big plus. In the dining room, my mother experienced varying food quality and abysmally slow service. Four elevators are inadequate for a building where a growing percentage of residents uses walkers or wheelchairs; waits at peak times averaged 10-15 minutes and longer when one of the elevators happened to be out of service. The building hired exterminators to tackle bedbug infestations which migrated through apartments and common areas. Residents and/or responsible parties should review monthly rent Statements VERY carefully. I found erroneous fees for supplementary services on nearly every one of my mother’s bills. Having to dispute overcharges month after month was a drain on my time and patience. As my mother’s needs increased, communication with The Breakers’ staff became more problematic. Important memos circulated among residents were not copied to family members living outside of The Breakers. Response to voice mail and email was often slow-to-none. Front desk concierges and maintenance personnel were often visibly stressed out and occasionally rude. Ultimately, though, it was extreme dissatisfaction with the “Catered Living” services that caused me to relocate my mother (see my review of Custom Home Care, Inc. elsewhere on this site).

My mom has only been there a month so it may be too soon to tell, but so far here are my thoughts. I don't really understand their system. We put her there on doctors orders. Very expensive, and has only gone up. They charge more to help my mom find her way around. What assisted living means to them and what we thought we were getting are not the same.

Was not a fit for our family member. I feel the evaluation was not correct and needed a higher level of care which they were able to provide. Should have never been accepted at the level at entry.

We have had no changes, since the initial assessment, and now they are telling me that the memory care is more than they can handle. They started a six week remodel, very shortly after we moved in, and they didn't mention it until I was signing the paperwork. It's a rough transition as it is, and the remodel very disruptive. Their internal communication is an issue. They have had a little turnover too. I love the staff, and Jennifer is great. If you have someone with memory care, you may have to ask more questions, and make sure they can handle the needs. I worry about the salt content in their food, there seems to be a lot of frozen and preserved foods. They just lost their chef and the new one is not as good.

The Renaissance may be a satisfactory, or even a good place for someone wanting independent living. I would not recommend it for someone needing assisted living services. My parents didn't get what they needed there. It only got worse with the change in management. From my family's perspective, instead of redecoration,, the new company's money would have been better spent for better trained, better paid care staff. I downgraded cleanliness because my parents' room was supposed to have daily housekeeping, but it was always very dusty. Additionally, I don't think the carpet was ever cleaned in my parents' room. Some staff was "friendlier" than others. The food is pretty good: no complaint there. Location is very good. Bottom line? We were disappointed with the Renaissance.

When she went there, she didn't need skilled nursing, she does now, it was a good thing until a few months later. They were very nice and she enjoyed her stay there. They don't check on them they only check on them once in a while. I feel as if sometimes they are understaffed. I was there and I would pull the cord and no one would come, a few other times she would go for the door and they would have to come running. A lot of the people were very nice. I think they need to be a little more involved with them. It's a pretty place, it was a big room. There are times when I've seen other residents in her room and they would sit there for hours, nobody knew where they were.

It;s not working out, they're going to let her out of the lease because my moms just so miserable there. It's not the breakers, shes just concerned about the money, she doesn't think she fits in with the other residents, she has dinner by herself in the living room, she doesn't like the mass, they go on a lot of the same trips, I could just go on and on. They were very nice about letting her out of her lease, they had given me 30 days and she didn't say anything until after those 30 days but I thought they were flexible and they said they didn't want her to be in a place where she wasn't happy and I'm sure it wasn't good for their morale either.

My mother does not like The Devonshire. There are a lot of things I'm not happy with. I've had different responses from different people as far as friendliness goes. It's reasonably inexpensive. It's hard to tell about the care services because my mother is very resistant to having people do things for her. They're very a la carte which iI think is good. She doesn't want to participate in any of the activities but I think they have a lot. She may go to church services but I don't know. I was led to believe that even though my mother was mad about having to move to assisted living she would make friends and end up liking it and that didn't happen at all for me. Things have gone from bad to worse. I called and talked to them about my mother not being happy there and mad at me for it and I thought they were kind of insensitive about that. We might take her out and if we do she's not going to another assisted living. Overall it's not been a good experience.

Addison reels you in with promises and lower costs but once the contract is signed the rates go up based on "re assessments " of resident's "needs". Frequently understaffed. Not uncommon for laundry and housekeeping to be two weeks behind. Meals are poor. No variety and low quality. Refused to provide medical records for my father and stepmother. Claimed I was required to provide documents to Corporate. Documents Addison had on file at their facility. Would not facilitate the process for me. The facility is very nice in appearance. [names removed] are helpful and charming until real issues arise. The business office manager,[Name Removed], is evasive when asked for itemized bills, an account of payments, where the money is spent.

I only rated it that way because some things are a joke, especially the things they claim they do. What matters most is how the residents view the place. The food and room size is ok.

The staff in memory care was locked in a room behind the door in office and having a grand old time . The patients were asking for help for long periods of time . 1 was slumped over in her chair crying. I over hears 1 of the workers complaining and saying she is asked to do a job that is not hers. She wasn't doing anything else the whole time I was there except she was loud and useless. All the patients sat a the table waiting for food for 15 minutes before they were served. It didn't seem like any of the workers cared about anything and they all walked past crying patients and didn't even make an effort to do anything while they were at work . I visited for over 5 hours mind you. I'm not sure why these workers were even in the office, but I was uncomfortable with this visit and watching some of the patients suffering without help. The activity nurse was extra nice and helpful to the patients. Her name was [name removed] . Even the cleaning crew were lazy and didn't want to be at work.

Staff and administrators need to improve greatly. When I took my mother out of there in December her clothing was and body were do filthy we had to discard her clothing and bring her home and vigorously scrub her body. For [price removed] dollars a month this was totally non acceptable. She has improved greatly since we removed her. She feels like she has gotten her dignity back and I find that upsetting that she had lost it at that facility.