Wingate Senior Living

Have had a very good experience with a family member in the memory care unit at the Residences for well over a year. The staff are excellent, engaged, respectful and friendly to residents and their family and friends. They have made big efforts to provide appropriate activities and care for individuals with different needs, and adjust when their needs change. Most important, when we have had concerns, the administrators and staff have responded immediately, and have done their best to try to put changes into effect. Except for about a month when the food service changed, the food has been very good There are options for famiies to have meals in the memory care dining room, or in the main dining room. The common spaces are lovely with a lot of light, and the rooms are quite nice. No place is perfect, and not every place is appropriate for everyone, but we have been satisfied overall that we made a good choice.

I seriously think that they need a larger staff. They do the best with the staff they have, but with the amount of residents, I just don't think there are enough people to keep them engaged. I just felt like she did not get what we expected and there were not enough things to do.

toured on 8/20; very new facility; space available now in studio apt (8300/mo) skilled nursing on site (~13000/mo) - did not see on this visit memory care 'neighborhood' was a good size, not too big, flow was good; did not get a chance to speak with the memory care director location is very good

Dad is living here now and although it's only been a few weeks so far, we feel comfortable about where he is and pleased with our selection. We toured almost every assisted living facility in Western Mass and found that Epoch and another facility were our top picks. It was very surprising how similar the pricing was for each facility we toured and startled that some facilities were charging the same for, what we feel, was substandard housing situations. Epoch was clean, sunny, and friendly. Our other choice also had these traits, but we ultimately decided to go with Epoch because it was a bit less expensive and seemed to have a more casual atmosphere, which is more conducive to our Dad.

Loved the place but I think the rooms might be to small

I s/w Bob. We like this facility because it is affordable, provides the full continuum of care on the same campus,and has a common kitchen for residents to use if they want. What is confusing, however, is that Bob was 'unsure' if they accept Medicaid. Hollis said they do. Not sure about this disconnect. A has a friend from her building living here now. M knows of several people living there who like it.

My Aunt and Uncle are residents and they're happy with everything except the food service which is awful. We've been there dining several times and it takes an hour and a half to get through a meal because of the wait. The staff are not properly trained and work inefficiently. We have spoken to the management more than once and nothing has changed. In fact it has interfered with some of their health appt's. One time we had to keep the VNA waiting 30 mins in order to get our food. The rent is too high to have such a basic service be so bad. Perhaps they should pay a little more for qualified staff

do not pick this place because they are very short staffed and they did not make that clear when we moved our mom in. she unfortunately had several falls, ended up in the hospital, and contracted Covid during her stay at The Inn at Silver Lake. my mom was in the memory care unit which is separate from the independent/assisted living side. the assisted living side was absolutely lovely. if you're healthier with no need for advanced care, this would be a good facility. if your health is in a declining state and you're in need of one on one care, I don't recommend. it was often difficult to find people; there were instances where we had completed our visit and needed a staff member to let us out with their badge, but had to wait 20-40 minutes just to locate one individual. we had such high expectations after hearing about other people and their experiences here, but it was very disappointing.

The staff are very friendly and great with communication and response time if I have any questions or concerns. They have tons of activities provided and they have a calendar each month and it is always filled each day. My loved one said when she first got here the food was very good, they did change chefs recently and it has gone downhill some. My loved one has noticed that it seems that assisted living does have more options food wise than the memory care side. We had a couple of issues with the type of care that she needed at first. They do offer all types of care here which is very nice and they take medicaid. Overall it has been a pretty good experience and I would recommend them to others who are looking, just make sure you are an advocate for your loved one.

The community was nice and the people were very helpful and gave us a wonderful tour. When I was touring the dining hall it just was so fancy. It seemed a little like it was upper class. The residents were all dressed in nice close and this just was not a good fit for my father in law.

There are two sections of The Residences at Wingate: the nursing home and the memory care unit. The memory care unit has been great, but not the nursing home. (As such, the ratings here reflect an average of the two, with the memory care unit having a higher rating in each category.) The nursing home: My mom was there for three weeks, and the care was horrendous. They did not bathe or clean her. On three occasions we came to visit her and she was wrapped up in a bed sheet on a wheelchair and could not move. Memory care unit: Very good. The staff is very attentive, very patient, loving, caring, and gentle.

I wrote something somewhere else on this web site. Nice man ...pleasant place. Actively considered but chose The Highlands instead

management not dialed in and they are not proactive. not a place you would want a loved one to be at for the long haul.

Last year Wingate instituted a $300 fee for all residents for care weather or not care was needed. This year Wingate increased rates 3%. Last year they also raised rates 3%. In the meantime renovations have been started a good 6 to 9 months ago and not completed. What renovations that have been done have taken away the hominess of the facility and made it look more corporate. Painting is half done - it looks terrible. Additionally, the quality of the food has suffered. Cuts of meat are inferior and tough and special offerings that were available on occasion as seldom available. In short they charge more and have done little to deserve the additional money. Staff performs well however, I wish Wellness could do more at times. That claim they are not licensed to provide medical interventions but they won’t do so much as a change a bandaid. This may be the industry standard so I would shop carefully and interview some residents prior to sending a loved one here or another assisted living.

[name removed] went to the hospital and they continued on charging us rent and would not reimburse the full amount only one month. I would caution others looking to pay attention to the rent if they are paying out of pocket. Staff on the floor are great, they just need a little more communication with family members.

My mother-in-law lived in a lovely apt. here for 2.5 years. Our family was impressed with the caring floor staff, activities, and meals. Unfortunately, near the end of Mom's time at Wingate, she had a medical crisis and was put on hospice, just at the time a new Nursing Director came on board. This Director exhibited a very troubling ignorance about hospice and end of life care. In the days preceding Mom's death, when she could no longer swallow, hospice left specific orders to quit force-feeding her, but this Nursing Director made her staff continue - resulting in painful episodes of Mom aspirating and vomiting. On our mom’s last day of life, the Nursing Director refused to administer comfort meds until confronted by the hospice nurse. The reason I'm not leaving a single star is that the Wingate Corp leaders took the matter extremely seriously, immediately arranging training about end of life care for the Nursing Dir. and her staff.

My father lived in the assisted living part of the building from 2013 until 2017 when Epoch ran the facility. That part of his experience was great. He had to move into memory care in 2017 when Wingate took over the facility. Our experience in that part of the facility was poor. There was not enough staff, his bathroom was often filthy, the set-up for activities was not good as residents had to travel in a small elevator to go down a floor for activities and most of the activities were not anything my dad wanted to participate in. Most of the time, people were just in front of a television set. I would not recommend memory care to anyone.

At first glance Wingate looks nice, but please look closer. They have had a serious rodent problem but tried to deny mice were in the kitchen?? The Board of Health had to be brought in to address the issue. The activities director was great, but unfortunately she has left. Management continues to increase the rent and fees greatly, yet wha the residents get in return decreases. They only seem to care about selling the next phase of residences at Wingate.

This is not a place to put a loved one! In the first 6 months, these people had lost two sets of very expensive hearing aids and one set of false teeth. Staff, other than the top positions do not remain in this facility and are constantly changing. The memory care unit is consistently understaffed. My husband and son in law came in to move a piece of furniture and when it came time to leave they were not able to find anyone to let them out of the locked unit. They finally called the front desk and someone came to let them out. There was no one there to watch the 20 dementia patients residing there. We came in another day and found a trail of poop from one end of the unit to the other. Someone finally called in someone from assisted care to help clean up the mess. That person that came in to help clean up was called to go back to assisted unit. I believe there was one person supervising the people in the dementia unit. Will have to write another review to cover other problems!

You will be spending lots of money - so ask many questions. Understand exactly what services your family member will receive. If there is anything required that falls outside of the "social model" of assisted living - you will be asked to provide a private aid - which is very expensive. Drop in unannounced - often memory care residents are planted in front of the TV. Staff is not proactive - often gathered chatting when they should be tending to residents. Personal belongings disappear - keep a close watch. It is a very pretty place - but looks aren't everything. Often do not follow-through on what is promised, from diet to basic aspects of care plans. If you think that your family member will need nursing care at any point - be sure to read reviews for the related skilled nursing facility - they are horrendous & have been for years......the same company runs both facilities.