The Gardens of Social Circle

It was with high hopes that our mother would be able to transition to a new home with new friends in this next chapter in life. We chose The Gardens for location and the ability for them to meet the needs of our mother. Needless to say they were not equipped with the staff, administration or corporate to handle our mom. Time and time again we were assured that they were capable and staffed to handle her knowing she had dementia. We were told policies were going to be put in place to improve her care. Many of the staff did not understand dementia and how it effects the mind. At first we were told we could put in a camera only the have it unplugged the next morning and told we had to come immediately to take it out. The same caretakers that take care of the residents, have to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. While all the caretakers are in the dining room the other residents that cant go to the dining room are left alone awaiting their plates and hopefully not needing anyone because they are not around. Several times moms food would be left by her chair never unwrapped and picked up saying she did not want to eat. No charting if she ate or not, no charting on her day, other than she refused to get up. The same caretakers have to wash their clothes. Clothes are removed from the dryer and placed in a basket, taken back to the caretakers station to be folded at a later time causing clothes to be wrinkled. After several times of finding her sitting in soiled clothes, unexplained bruises, going from walking with a cane and talking to not being able to talk we took her out to give her a better life. This was our experience and I pray change is drastically made to improve the quality for all the residents still there.

I have been treated very well here.My husband passed away in January and the love and support has been tremendous.I am going through physical therapy and the encouragement makes me want to try harder. The treatment I have received has been exceptional. The staff goes beyond thecall of duty to help as much as possible. I am grateful for a clean place to stay and to lay my head at night.

Zero stars if it was an option! Our experience here was a nightmare. For 6 weeks there was incident after incident where my Mother was neglected and mistreated. We gave it a fair chance! Unexplained bruises and cuts, ( we took pictures. Including two of them in this post) sitting in soiled clothes, left in her chair all night never changing her, even offered meals in soiled clothes. I went one morning and they had her cleaned and her carpet and bed cleaned. They told me she had gotten sick in her bed. The next morning I went and she was sitting in her chair with badly soiled clothes, the very same clothes she had on the morning before! She had not been changed at all! Their excuse for the times she was soiled was ' she refused'. They were told many times to call us if that happened. Even that memo couldnt reach the ' care takers'! We talked to everyone we could and still no results. No answers for anything. No one would know who dressed her, did she eat, how did she get from one area to another, no one ever had answers for anything. We had to take shifts going everyday three times a day to make sure she was ok yet still she was mistreated and neglected. She ended up having to be taken by ambulance from there. She was sitting in the commons area in very bad shape and not one person noticed! I dont know what would have happened had we not gone that morning. There was sheer terror in her eyes. She could not speak and was so weak she could barely hold her head up. She could walk with a cane and talk when she got there. Six weeks later she can barely hold her head up! No one knew who dressed her or how she was taken to the commons area with no one noticing anything wrong! We found her medicine under her chair, in her bed, and on the floor on many occasions. Not only that, when I took it to the med tech twice she didn't even know what it was! They didnt even make sure she took her meds! When we checked out this place we told them her issues. She had alzheimers and she was incontinent. They assured us they were equipped to care for her. They knew everything! We told them from the start! Not only were they not equipped to care for her, they shouldnt have ANY residents who aren't of sound mind and are not able to tell someone exactly how they are being treated. I saw many times the ' caretakers' being rude and hateful to the residents. They roll some of them ( ones who cannot get themselves there) into the commons area and leave them there. They look so sad. Its really heartbreaking. The morale is awful among the staff. Talk of spying on each other, being told I was lied to by management, ect. There is no competent management. No one is trained. There is no accountability for the treatment of these defenseless people! I wish so badly all the residents could be rescued from there. We have gone to three levels of management and still nothing. It seems no one really cares. I have sent two emails recently to NC and they were ignored. No response. I got a response the first time I called and emailed. I was assured by Stephanie then, and later by Amanda ( in the facility)they were working to implement new protocol to make things run more smoothly, to make a better experience for the residents, and to have better and more efficient logs kept. We were assured things would get better. Nothing changed. After those initial responses, I was ignored. There is nothing even remotely professional or caring about the way this facility is ran. The people trying to run it are not qualified nor are the ' caretakers'. They are grossly understaffed and caretakers are doing laundry, meals, ect. A lot of the time you couldn't even find a staff member. My Mom will never be subjected to this horror again but my heart breaks for the ones left behind. They seriously need an advocate! There are many more incidences I could share ( and have documented) but hopefully this is enough to save some poor unsuspecting family from leaving their defenseless loved ones there. Please dont!!