Hello
Does anyone out there have any feedback on nursing homes in the Jackson MI area? My dad has been in a couple for rehab after falls, and neither was anyplace my mom and I would want to put him long-term. Countryside had nice facilities, tried to get some group activities, and some of the staff were good..but there did not seem to be enough of either staff or activities. Heartland was fairly awful, in terms of both infrastructure and staff attitiudes. In both places, the default seemed to be park him in a wheelchair in front of a TV.

If anyone has any experience with any others, even a bit outside of the Jackson area, I'd appreciate info.

Perhaps if you contact "A Place for Mom",,,they may be able to assist in finding a suitable living arrangement for your Dad.

As far as NH or ALF's having enough staff,,well heck no,,they don't. The state of Michigan mandates that they only have to have 1 aide for every 8 or 9 residents,,which I think is outrageously ridiculous.

Is your Dad a verteran of any branch of service? If so,,you can contact the VA.....I do hope you find someplace suitable. You may also want to check into a small ALF,,,or small group home.

Best of luck to you. Our LO's never get the care at any facility like they get at home,,thats why we have to be strong advocates and see them often as possible once they're placed,,to be sure that care and such are being met. Please keep us posted. Peace

Kathy,

A Place for Mom wasn't much help finding NH's. They are more for AFC and ALF's.

I found that Medicare was a good source of info. Try the NH compare tool at:

http://www.medicare.gov/NHComp...esEnabledStatus=True

It has results of recent inspections as well as staff to resident ratios. It is a good start to locating some homes to visit.

P.S. You can put in how many miles you are willing to travel. Personally, I don't think I'd want to place a LO in a home with less than a 3-star rating. My mom's home is 4-stars. If you don't find something within your first radius, try more miles.

I am currently working with A Place for Mom and they do seem to recommend mostly ALFs and especially ones that are Private Pay only. Also, you need to realize that they only recommend ones that they have agreements with.

They have given me some good recommendations but I know there are other good places that they do not work with.

Unless you have unlimited wealth be careful of private pay facilities because if your money runs out it can be difficult to get in a place that will take Medicaid. Most places want at least a few months of private pay. So you could find yourself with no where to go and limited options.

I cannot say enough for the Bortz Health Care chain of facilities. The closest to Jackson is the Ypsilanti one. I have been to 2 facilities of theirs and they are solid 4 stars and so much going on for the residents. My mother lives in one in the metro Detroit area.

The Bortz facilities also take Medicaid, so if he starts out private pay and runs out of money, he can just go on Medicaid.

Hi
I was looking for personal experience, like, "My mom is in Highland and we love the way they treat her" or, "Don't go to Heartland, the staff treats anyone with white hair, caregivver or patient, like they are demented". One of the places that we did not like did have quite a few stars...and, it was better than the place with only 1 star...but I still like some subjective impressions.

What a coincidence, Kathy. I just found this board last night, and saw your message. One of the things I am trying to help my mother with right now is to find a good facility for my father in Jackson, MI. My father is in Stage 6 now, and my mother has realized that she soon will be unable to care for him at home.

Unfortunately, I live 650 miles away, which makes things a little more difficult.

I will post any information I find pertinent over the next few weeks, and I respectfully ask anyone else who might have recommendations to post them also.

Thanks in advance to everybody.

I agree with Howdy2u. The Bortz facilities are great. The one I used had seperate wings for men and women with AD. The aides all had a minimun of six weeks training in dealing with AD and they had all been there over 10 years each. The one my husband was in had ten male patients, private rooms and an aide for every two patients.

Of the NHs' I used for hospice respite, I found that the smaller NH were better.