Habersham House

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20 Reviews

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  A Place For Mom

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  SeniorAdvisor.com

Very under staffed. Nurses are not available most of the time. Getting help from the kitchen to help with patients on the weekend.

We moved our mother into Habersham House (HH) memory care unit. We had many problems as detailed below: When applying for admittance for our mother, in addition to her financial statements (she is self supporting), we had to provide our own personal financial details which we found intrusive. We also completed a detailed account of our mother's likes, dislikes, personal history, etc. We appreciated the thoroughness of these questions. Sadly, it became clear that the information on our mother was either never shared with the staff or if it was, they ignored it. When our mother celebrated her 91st birthday, nothing was done to celebrate it, nor was it even mentioned. When we inquired if anything was done to acknowledge this special day, the Director’s reply indicated the staff had no idea. There were regular activities and musical events in the assisted living area that our mother would have enjoyed (as indicated on her questionnaire) but she was never taken to participate. In fact, one such day, my sister was present when a staff member came to the memory unit to ask if there were any patients to transport for the performance. The aides present immediately said "no", with no consideration that a few residents might have been interested. The memory care unit literature and advertising emphasize the Montessori Method. It was never explained to us how this method was applied to people with memory deficits. Although a bulletin board listed several activities each day, we never once saw any activities despite visiting several times a week, at different times of the day. The aides in that unit appear unsmiling and unresponsive when greeted and certainly, whenever I was there, they were more interested in their cell phones than in the residents, who were left in their chairs to watch infomercials or other inappropriate content on the TV. The residents lack stimulation and seem to be treated poorly by the staff who do not seem to care since their patients cannot voice any complaints. Our mother was in the Memory Care unit at Habersham House for 6 weeks approximately and her hair was washed only 2 times, even after frequent requests! On one occasion, the coordinator of the unit said the staff did not wash hair and we had to have the hairdresser do it (was this a kickback scheme?!). What happens to residents who cannot afford to have a hairdresser on a weekly basis? Of course, when we complained to the director, this was denied but it did happen. Hair was supposed to be washed once a week, baths 3 times a week. On one occasion, my sister arrived to find my mother's door closed. She heard yelling behind the door and when she knocked, a staff member opened it slightly and said they were helping her in the bathroom. When my sister spoke with our mother afterward, she said the staff were very rough with her. At that point, my sister inspected mother’s skin and found red marks on her back. You can form your own conclusions here. Our mother was moved to Habersham House from another facility out-of-state where she had resided for 2 years. The Staff there were wonderful and we were very satisfied with her care. The new residence to which we moved our mother after Habersham House, is also wonderful. Residents there are respected and treated with dignity; the staff are visibly caring. There are many activities in the memory care unit and our mother actively engages in them. Her mental state has improved enormously! I mention this to indicate that we are not newbies to this, nor are we typically complainers. Of the three facilities which we have experienced, we were happy with all except HH.

This is a nice community for care. The staff were very nice. The community was always clean and maintained. She was happy with the variety of healthy meals. They did offfer activiites, but sometimes they were cancelled. We would recommend this community for outstanding care and a nice value for other families and there loved ones.