My mom has moved into Bridges by EPOCH at Andover. There are several things I like about it. The staff there has been excellent; I can’t ask for any better staff. The physical facility itself is very well laid out. There’s a beautiful courtyard in the middle that’s fenced all the way around or surrounded by the building. It’s done in such a way that it doesn’t look like a compound. It’s beautifully landscaped. It has raised flowerbeds, raised vegetable gardens, and flowers of all different colors. Certain flowers bloom at certain times of the year, so it looks like as one flower stops blooming, another one starts blooming. They have different neighborhoods that you can go visit. They have a beautiful cafeteria, and it has a high ceiling with windows facing out the sides. I couldn’t ask for anything better. They let us bring some of our own furniture in. Until we could get that furniture in, they let us use the model furniture. The food is excellent; no problems at all.
Memory care is all they do. The moment you come in that front door, the staff are helpful. They’re excellent. They’re always in a good mood and they’re always courteous and happy. Everything is clean in there. There’s never an odor. When you have a lot of the elderly, there’s a lot of incontinence especially when you’re in memory care or dementia, and there’s never that odor when you walk in the door. Everything is well kept. The furniture that you sit on outside is always clean. The walkways outside to walk around on, everything is clean. Even the parking area is spotless.
No one wants to put their mother into a facility, but that’s the best place. If I had to sit down with a fresh piece of paper and say, ‘What do I want for a memory care facility from the ground up?’ That would be it. I couldn’t come up with anything better. The staff are very good. They try to encourage my mother to get out and participate in activities. They do this with all the residents there. I’m very impressed. I keep thinking if there’s a way I could get my house set up so my mother could stay here, but I can never do for her what they do. I wouldn’t have the patience, the skill sets, or the physical abilities. Even if we could have her here, I don’t have activities here. If you look at the menu of activities they have for the day, there are five different activities today. There is a scheduled thing she can do. There are different types of activities. Plus, being there, she gets to be around other people. If she were living in her own home now, she’d be all by herself. There’s a big common room that they do things in … they’ll do a group sing-along or they’ll have a movie or a lecture outside. They have games, and they do field trips, too. They’re on par with everything. If you think about it, you get at least two folks full time, 24 hours a day, you have the activities, and there are three meals a day. They check on everybody periodically. I feel like we get our value for the money.
– Charles, Son of Bridges® Resident