Cedar Communities, LP

My mom has been at Brookside Stone Mountain for 9 months and they've had three administrators with no experience, they're currently on the third. They lack staff; they have one person per shift on days, one person on evenings, and one person on nights. They lack experience in taking care of the residents. The only meal my mom can safely eat is breakfast. For the other meals, they serve food a teenager would eat. They aren't concerned about dietary needs or low sodium - they don't take that into consideration. I've never seen a dietician or a menu - you never know what you're going to eat. Like most communities, they have an "always available" menu that you can order from if you don't like what's being served that day, but my mom gets lip when she asks for it. They'll say things like, "what do you want that for?" They're also lacking in the cleaning of her room. Her room just got cleaned after 3 weeks. We're dealing with a culture that doesn't care, they don't have basic care skills. According to the State Ombudsman they are not an Assisted Living Facility, although they represent themselves as such. They are a personal care home. My mom has fell twice and SHE had to call 911. They don't answer the call buttons, they just shut them off and keep going. They don't answer the phone and the door stays unlocked until nighttime, you can just walk in and roam about inside. They open the door at 7am and they allow it to stay open until 7pm. Anyone could walk in off the streets. As a family we have had meetings with them. They seemed responsive to our concerns and small changes were made afterward. One of the directors tried to pull a surprise to have legal counsel there, and we didn't know he was going to be there. I'm pretty sure that precipitated the change in the administration, because of the things we shared with the legal counsel. Based on us speaking up there were small changes, but it's still not the experience we would like to have for our mom. It's been a bad experience. Currently, my mom doesn't get to the bed before 10:30pm and they get her up at 5:30am because of their lack of staff. So, she is not getting the proper rest. There isn't enough staff to get her to bed early and / or help her up at a decent time. They used to have 12 hour shifts, but they had problems keeping staff so now they have 8 hour shifts. The person who has the evening shift puts her to bed and the person who has the morning shift, gets her up - which results in the 10:30pm (or later) to 5:30am sleep schedule. The reason why we chose Brookside is because it fit into her budget, and it was all inclusive. I'm not and can not speak for all of communities, but for staying in the budget - is this what we get? She is 80+ years old, and this is ridiculous. Thankfully nothing has happened to my mom, there is no abuse or neglect. But the culture lacks respect, they talk to her any kind of way. They'll say things like, "If I would have known you were on my list, I wouldn't have helped you." They speak to her in an inhuman manner and they make her feel less than. Not all, but some of the staff have a serious lack of respect and if they're speaking to her that way, I can't imagine how they speak to those who are nonverbal and incognizant. We used A Place for Mom; they referred us to Brookside and I'm very disappointed in that service because now we are moving my mom. They've decided that as of Monday they are raising her rent by [price removed]. Overall I would tell everyone that it's been a bad experience and to stay away.

Do NOT put your loved one here! RUN! they have had 4 managers in a year...some nurses are great but they do not make up for the bad management! My loved one is here for now. The place is horrible!

My Aunt is a resident of Brookdale. I would NOT recommend this place to anyone!! We are trying to find a place for my aunt to get her out of there, They charge for everything they do. My aunt smokes and they charge $15.00 just for taking her outside to have a cigarette. The sad thing is, the employees that are taking her out are smoking with her. Also the food is horrible. It was good at one time but lately it is awful!! It never matches the menus and my aunt has lost so much weight in past month. It is horrible. They make medication errors all the time too.