Brookdale Plymouth

Brookdale definitely over-promised services. The best thing I can say about Brookdale Plymouth is that the staff is very friendly and smile a lot. The Activities Director is also fabulous and my mom really likes him. However, my mom doesn't understand most of the rest of the staff because of the language barrier (a lot of the staff have thick accents and I myself even have a hard time understanding what they are telling me). The thing that bothers me the most about Brookdale Plymouth is that my mom is paying $461/month extra for dressing/grooming assistance, but she rarely gets assistance. Mind you my mom tells the staff that she doesn't need assistance, but this is not the case. I was told by the Director that the staff are trained to "re-approach" when encountering resistance. I just don't see that happening at all with my mom's care. For example, I've noticed that my mom wears the same dirty clothes for days in row. Where is the "assistance" from the staff in getting her to change her clothes? I also have noticed that my mom sleeps in her clothes many nights. Again, where is the assistance from the staff in getting my mom into her pajamas? Same thing with the showers. My mom pays $173/month extra for assistance with bathing two times a week. After two months I learned that my mom had only taken 1 bath since arriving. (I have no idea why I wasn't informed of this sooner.) I learned that my mom was refusing the shower and that the staff were unable to get my mom to take one. The solution was for me to be there when it's a bath/shower night. Another very bad issue is the cleaning of the rooms (or lack there-of) There is very little cleaning done (if any) of my mom's room. I wind up cleaning and vacuuming once a week. The Director is very nice but appears to constantly give me lip service ("that shouldn't have happened"; "we are retraining/re-educating our staff", etc.). My mom's clothes and bed linens often get lost. (2 sets of sheets have disappeared). From what I understand, this is common at all memory care facilities. Brookdale promised me that I could be the "daughter" again (instead of my mom's caretaker). Unfortunately that hasn't happened. I launder my mom's clothes and bed linens, I am the one to convince my mom to take a shower, I am the one who is cleaning my mom's room, etc.. I still feel like the care-taker. Having provided mostly negative feedback above, I can say that I feel my mom is safe at Brookdale Plymouth and that the staff is always willing to listen to my complaints. I have definitely had to adjust my expectations. One other good thing about Brookdale is that they allow my mom to have her cat as long as I keep the litterbox cleaned and take care of the cat. This is one of the reasons I chose Brookdale over many other places which don't allow pets.

My relative has lived at this facility over a year, and I visit her at least once a month. There is usually dried feces on her toilet seat, and I often see the same scraps of paper on the floor that were there during my previous visit, meaning the housekeeping is pretty bad. I visited last week, and there was no toilet paper in the bathroom nor any towels. At lunch, the help just put the food in front of the residents with a plop, then picked up the plates when they were done. The food wan't cut up for those needing it, so they ate with their fingers, and coffee wasn't poured until the residents yelled. Otherwise, the staff just stood around.

This is a larger community and I did not get the feeling this community would work for my loved one. I did not like the way the community was set up. The people I met were super nice and the community looked clean.