Freedom Senior Living

My wife has advanced Alzheimer's and because of a serious decline in her condition following a surgery I was forced to place her in a "memory care" facility. After a fairly extensive review of various places she was put in Freedom Senior Living in Sevierville, TN. After a recent bad experience with a facility for rehab Freedom was an incredible change. She has a clean room, is cared for by a staff that is very passionate, and is carefully supervised. As a daily visitor it is amazing to see how a well run facility operates. She is never far away from ever present staff members who truly care about the residents, unlike a previous one who couldn't even have staff to respond to nurse's call buttons. To a person those who provide care know her name, carefully insure she understands how and why they are providing medicine or assistance, and who are always aware of her needs ranging from toilet assistance to comfort. Further, I watched a housekeeper clean her room. I have never seen a cleaner do such a careful and detailed cleaning anywhere ever. I watched in awe of how every surface was cleaned carefully, how things were moved so nothing was missed, and how areas were cleaned using the correct cleansers and tools. That was just further evidence of the quality of care given at Freedom Senior Living. I'm typically unimpressed with people or businesses that do their job as expected. Everything I have seen at Freedom goes far beyond merely doing what they are supposed to.

When we first looked into this facility for my mother, we were told by Gabriella Ritchie, the executive Director, that all the employees knew CPR, that there were round-the-clock nurses, and that my mother would get as much or as little assistance as she needed with activities of daily living (including getting two and from the dining room for meals). None of this was true. So at 10 o’clock at night, my mother couldn’t get a Tylenol for a headache because there was nobody there to get into the medications. When my mother was having stroke-like symptoms, there was nobody there, including the LPN in charge, who knew how to do a stroke assessment. We found only one person there who knew how to use a gait belt. There is one resident there, Jack, who would routinely enter my mother’s PRIVATE RESIDENCE TO USE HER BATHROOM! We paid quite a bit of money for my mother to have a private residence and private bathroom, but Jack could do whatever he pleased. Nobody listened to us. We were lied to on multiple occasions, until Gabi just avoided us when we came to visit our mother. When my mother passed away, and we went to clean out her room, NOT ONE SINGLE STAFF MEMBER CAME BY TO EXPRESS THEIR CONDOLENCES! The management Team are all related, and none of them are very friendly. Many of the staff are CNAs who were very friendly and liked my mother quite a bit. They would frequently hang out in my mother’s room to talk with her about life, but the conversation quickly turned to how mistreated they were as employees. I’m guessing that most facilities like this are shortstaffed and overworked. I understand that. BUT WE WERE LIED TO SEVERAL TIMES! I would look elsewhere to find a good place for my family member.