Brookdale

Not our best experience. My father was here for seasonal care while my parents were in Florida. It is near their condo and we were able to arrange transportation to their community center a couple times a week. However, the activities at Brookdale where no where near advertise and administratively they were a nightmare. It took several months and repeated calls to get the paperwork sent to our insurer for reimbursement and a couple months with repeated calls to get the deposit returned when there were no outstanding issues.

My father-in-law placed his wife in the memory care unit at Brookedale. During the 5 months she was there, he found her in the floor twice and naked/confused once. He ended up moving her to a different facility. Here are the issues he found at Brookedale: 1. Rooms are too big on the Memory Care side. Alzheimer’s patients generally “walk the walls”. Additionally it was difficult to find the bathroom within the “apartment”. 2. Absolutely no activities for the residents on the Memory Care Unit. Residents pace the halls, sleep or just sit. 3. Staff to resident ratio too low. 4. Staff did not toilet resodents every 2 hours as advertised. The family found mom in soiled britches. 5. Meals were not suitable for Alzheimer’s patients. Alzheimer’s is a regression. It ia difficult for these patients to use utensils. Finger foods are more appropriate.

I had the opportunity to search for a place for my in-laws. It was an urgent situation and the staff at Brookdale really went above and beyond to make this move happen for them. However, we’re into this going on 7 months and the biggest complaint I’ve gotten from both of them is the food. Something really must be done about it. Has the chef ever met with the residents to hear their concerns? Is he/she willing to try a resident recipe of the month? I understand that nutrition is foremost, but there are ways to improve the taste/look of the food and it still be nutritious.

We lived at Brookdale Niskayuna for about three months. In general the people working there were very nice, some were outstanding. The biggest downside was the dining room. The waitresses were rude, reaching over and in front of residents at the table and pointing at people and saying "you" to take your order. The food was good but slopped onto the plate and frequently ran out of things on the menu. One time the waitress poured milk on my cereal (from the bottle) and poured it all over the table and on me. She made no attempt to clean up the mess. The floor/carpets in the dining room and elevators were dirty. I had heard people complain about not getting their medicine on time, sometimes not at all if the night nurse was a no show. However we did not personally have this experience. We did have some billing problems for items we received, returned but still kept getting them. They are still working on getting the credits processed.

My Mom has been at Brookdale South for several months. Most of the time she refers to this as her home. She has made a few friends amongst the other residents. I notice that the staff always greets her and calls her by her first name. They all act like they are genuinely interested and concerned... and some of them really are! The food is pretty good and the portions are adequate for those for whom they are prepared. Activities are varied and well organized. It is easy for a resident to know when and where to sign up. The common areas are bright and cheery. I've butted heads with management when they attempted to press unnecessary services at an additional cost. It took several months to replace a broken projector in the theatre. Not a big deal except most of the residents cannot leave; and going to the movies is a real treat for them. Cleaning of the apartments and attention to regular trash removal could improve.

Although almost all staff is extremely nice, there seems to be a lack of staff.The NAs staff the dining room serving meals and also clean the dining room. This, instead of, providing attention to the patients. Sometimes the times are very slow in answering call bells, again I believe because they do not have enough nursing staff. This is particularly unacceptable when a call could mean that a patient has an emergency. On the plus side, everyone learns your name very quickly and seem recepetive to suggestions when they are made. Very capable seeming director who is also extremely nice to be with as are most of the staff. I just wish they would hire more people--like servers for the dining room so that the NAs could go back to the floors to take care of patients!

The sales meeting went very well and we were excited to move our father in. The facility is attractive and clean but we were really concerned about his level of care. I think they must be really understaffed. No one could answer our questions and we never even met his care team. Often his room smelled and i'm not sure if his sheets were ever changed. Even though they did offer activities they were usually on the television screen. Our concerns were never addressed so we moved him to a different memory care facility after just one month.

My mother is happy with this facility. My only complaint is that their website is a mess. Too many links and depending on which link one goes to you get different phone numbers some of which are dead ends. Others answer but tell me I have the wrong number and when they go to connect me the line goes dead. One site says they are no longer accepting clients. Prices differ depending on which site you go to. The receptionist tries to be helpful but has to run around to find people. I just keep calling until I reach my mother. 19th century technology.

I Noticed the most recent review was over a year old so decided to relate our experiences. My Father moved in early in 2018 and has moderate dementia/alzhiemers. The staff is kind and helpful but has let his personal hygiene go unattended too much. I allowed several months for him to adapt to the new environment and the staff time to learn his patterns. However, even at month 4 , he is allowed to go without showers and clothes changes too long . They have not been successful getting him to brush his teeth, shave, or cut his nails. The management has gone so far as to shower and shave him personally, which impressed me, but the staff should be trained better or held accountable for not getting these basic hygiene tasks done. Cleanliness of the facility and rooms and food are acceptable but not outstanding.

The facility itself is nice and the location is great. A few things to be aware of: First, the orientation is minimal. There is no effort to introduce a new resident to the executive director, the activities director, the dining room director and staff, etc. Orientation is left with the other residents, and so can vary depending on the (one) resident who agrees to provide the orientation. More important to day-to-day living, Brookdale has been having continuing problems with their (only) dining facility. The food is uneven. The wait staff in uniformly slow and inept and sometimes can be downright rude and condescending to the residents. Also, the dining room does not have open seating and so those that do not have reservations with a group that fills a table must wait for some time to be seated. Often you will see a huge group waiting to be seated while there are empty tables in the dining room. The person doing the seating of residents does not seem to get to know them and who they like to sit with. The dining room is a big reason why people decide to move from their homes, so make sure you ask about these things before making a decision.

Community has eliminated services such as on site banking and pharmacy while increasing prices. Food in the dining room is NEVER hot. Multiple times at resident meetings the issues with meals has been brought up but no changes are made. Saturday nigh meals are now Buffett and on plastic plates!! Facility looks dated in main lobby and eating areas. In need of a major facelift lived here for 8 years. Recently moved

I toured Brookdale Niagara while looking for a place for my loved one. The community itself is nice, and I liked that they provided meals and that my loved ones would have round the clock care. However, they are at different care levels, so they would not be able to stay together. This community would not have been a good fit for us.

The administrator who gave me the tour really stood out to me. She was super nice, sweet, and seemed very caring. One thing I really liked about her is that she had a lot of good follow through. If I picked a facility based on the “sales”, I would have gone with this facility. The other side of this tour didn’t go well. I just didn’t get a good gut feeling here. The rooms smelled like pee and it felt like an institution.

I toured Brookdale, and I thought it was a nice community, but I didn’t like that there was one building that was 3-4 storied where residents lived, and there was another building where dining and activities took place. I felt like I wouldn’t really have an excuse to leave my room if I had to do so much walking to get from place to place. I was looking for something less spread out.

I would NOT recommend this location for Alzheimer's patients who are considered 'high functioning'. We thought this would be a place for Mom with her dementia/Alzheimer's, but once the need for memory care became apparent, we were then educated on the nuances of memory care---she was too 'high functioning' for their unit and we had to move her to another location---only 2 months after the initial move!

Facility is nice and sales team is good. If your loved one is truly independent (and getting in and out of a tub is not a problem or will become a problem), this could be the place. If you're looking for a facility to provide extra supports with an eye towards assisted living, you may want to keep looking. This facility's main focus is on independent living. Four of the five large floors are set up for it. We found the care we scheduled from the facility inconsistent and had difficulty handling issues through management. It's a nice, but tight knit community. Making a large and expensive decision like this isn't easy. Brookdale didn't work out for us but it's worth looking at. Good luck.

I was not impressed with the tour of this community. It was a locked down community where you would need permission to come and go every time and it took them time to let us in when we showed up for our tour. I got more of institualional feeling here and knew this was not going to be a good fit for my parents.

The staff here did a very good job showing us around, they took their time with our tour and answered all our questions. We just felt that this community was too small, needed to be updated, drab and would not be the best fit for my dad.

Due to my mom's medical conditions I am very limited as to where I can place her and at the time this seemed like a good option but now I am questioning it. I am finding there is a big overturn in staffing and the staff that is there is not living up to what was promised when I signed up. There has been one medication issue of my mother not getting an over the counter medication for a full week. The housekeeping on the weekends is beyond horrible I have had to clean and take the trash out in my mother's room for the past few weekends. Apparently, the soap dispenser had either leaked or spilled but there has been soap on the floor under the dispenser for the past few weeks and has been ignored. The staff is not encouraging my mom to participate in activities or social hours from what I am seeing.

I would NOT recommend this location for Alzheimer's patients who are considered 'high functioning'. We thought this would be a place for Mom with her dementia/Alzheimer's, but once the need for memory care became apparent, we were then educated on the nuances of memory care---she was too 'high functioning' for their unit and we had to move her to another location---only 2 months after the initial move!