Moving Time (Again)

After much thought and deliberation, Tracy and I have made the difficult decision to move our mom from Maristone of Franklin to NHC Place.

As I've mentioned before, the time has come to move her from assisted living to memory care.  There was an opening in the memory care unit at Maristone, but I wanted to take a look at similar accommodations somewhere else to have a frame of reference.  I visited NHC Place with a close friend of mine whose father and step-mother live there.  I was impressed with the stability and professionalism of their management team.  Also, when my mom needs to move to skilled care, which I suspect will be in the not too distant future, we can simply move her down the hall rather than to another facility.  In other words, NHC Place is likely her final destination, which makes me incredibly sad to write.

Maristone, on the other hand, has not been supported by their corporate leadership.  The executive director - who had no impressed us at all - gave his notice the first of September and was gone by September 15.  For reasons I can't begin to fathom, he was not replaced with an interim executive director while a search for a new executive director was undertaken.  Instead, a former caregiver who works the front desk - and is an incredibly nice person - had stepped in, sort of but not really, to run the place.  Predictably, the quality of care for residents declined dramatically and, in truth, we began to question my mom's safety and that of other residents.

It pains me to write that, because I truly like, respect and appreciate several of the key staff people.  However, we're not alone with our concerns.  Last week, a friend who has a relative there approached Tracy and advised her that six or seven other families are planning to meet to discuss similar concerns about the decline in the quality of care their family is receiving.  The whole thing is kind of sad, because there are residents at Maristone who do not have family members who visit regularly and can speak for them.

So, next week will be tough.  I'm slammed at work Monday - Wednesday, then we'll move my mom to NHC Place on Thursday.  She doesn't know about the move and I suspect the transition will be difficult for her.

If you read this blog regularly and are a friend of my mom's, she (and we) would love for you to visit her.  I'll post her new address after we complete her move.

Mom, last week, during our Sunday walk down to Publix.  I'll miss being able to roll her in her wheelchair to Publix when we move her to NHC Place.