Charter Senior Living

Beautiful facility with a concept of small groups is great. Some staff very helpful but many overworked and unskilled. Food is fair, cleanliness of room especially the bathroom poor, showers sporadic, and response time as sporadic as the showers. Two staff for 16 people is not adequate if they have to do everything from showers to cleaning to cooking to dressing making the beds and responding to emergencies without adequate training.

We toured with The Cottages of Fox Lake and the location was a bit too far away from us - it also had a hospital smell to it.

Beware of what they promise vs. what they deliver. Whether in regards to housekeeping, commitment to level of care, pet policies, computer center, dining, etc. There is so much that was not as promised. On New Years' day they shut down the dining room and gave us sack lunches consisting of a sandwich and a bag of potato chips. They hired a new head of dining, and things have improved a little bit. But for months they would post a menu, yet you had no idea what you'd actually be getting. They would post roast beef for dinner, and you would get a hot dog instead. Up until the holidays, they had a nurse on staff. But they transferred her over to another facility 60% of the time. However, for most of January and part of February, there was no nurse here. They have finally hired a new nurse. But I don't understand how they could leave us mostly uncovered other than the regional nurse coming in on occasion, who was not as familiar with the residents and their health issues.

We had a good tour at The Cottages of Fox Lake. I liked that they offered lots of activities for the residents. But the rooms were tiny. They were just way too small. And the rooms didn't look as clean / fresh / new as we preferred.

The community could use some more staff to assist with the resident's care. There is a menu for the residents to order from, and if they don't like it the chef will accommodate requests. There are care fees on top of the rent of the apartment. Some of the care includes medication, bathing and dressing assistance and hygiene care.

We toured with Charter Senior Living at Woodholme Crossing and they were not upgrading fast enough and the facility was old.

The place is kept clean for the most part, but my loved ones room could have been cleaner. The staff were usually friendly and helpful.The care staff, did the best they could with my loved one despite being understaffed. (A common issue these days). I understand they were working on hiring another nurse, which will help. The food was hit or miss. My loved one disliked the food immediately after our first meal corned beef, which was a hard, rectangular patty no juicy layers of beef. She was then put off by the small portions and cold temperatures of the food. With activities, there seemed to be quite a few options but many were scheduled in the morning. Mom was never one to get up early and so didn't participate much, but she liked Bingo. They have a bus, and groups go out into the community. Mom was looking forward to warmer weather when they would go out for lunches and other places. In winter store trips were more the norm.

This facility is not equipped to handle people who need assistance with mobility, especially those using walkers or wheelchairs. They don't have help call buttons. I don't think the staff in general is very trained, some are wonderful and some are not. The Director is wonderful, but she can't be there all the time.

Overall she is happy, active and social.

The sales girl was fabulous. I am overall happy with Charter, I think it is the best out of the ones that we looked into, but no facility is going to be great. There have just been some issues we have had. Some of the staff members are amazing, and some you can tell it is just a job for them. We have had to really stay on top of things which is disconcerting because it makes it impossible for us to relax - it is very frustrating. I would tell others just to advocate for your loved ones and make sure the line of communication is there. I would highly recommend putting a camera in your loved ones room. If there is something you do not like, then address it with them.

Charter Senior Living was a nice facility and the staff were very caring and attentive towards the residents. The room that we saw was very small, I am not sure we could even fit her bed and her dresser in there. To me it did not feel homey at all, I know gray is the new color but it just didn't feel bright and airy.

I toured this community and it was nice. Clean community and nice staff. They had a lot of extras that could be great for some, but wasn't the best fit for my loved one.

I definitely think that their could have been better communication with the residents about what is going on and what is available. We had a bad experience on check out as well. My loved one was hospitalized and when we were ready to move back, we were no longer candidates. I understand why, but it would have been nice if it was communicated to us beforehand. Other than those issues it was a good experience.

This place was ot a good fit for my loved one. I did not like the smell.

My loved one wasn't there for long, she had a stroke several days after being admitted. I would say they were somewhat responsive to her needs. We were told not to visit for a month, so we didn't get to see what was going on. You might want to ask questions to get a status update, I had to call in to see how she was doing. I did have to call because after a week I didn't hear anything from them. Communication could be improved; for people who are being admitted they need to provide some sort of update on how they are adjusting. My loved one was admitted to their memory care unit, and since we were asked not to visit we didn't get to see things in action. I did see activities, but not where my loved one was participating in them. They seemed to have lots of activities going on for memory care though. They asked us to not to visit so that they could get our loved one acclimated first, without causing interference or feelings of wanting to go home. I think they are doing a good job, the other residents I saw seemed to be doing well. The place was very clean; the backend of the place was very well cleaned, so I think they did well for cleanliness. Communication was very general and they are good at that. The executive director did send texts with general information regarding the community, but I was looking for more personal updates on how my loved one was acclimating since I wasn't allowed to visit - and I had to call for that because I did not know.

Make sure you stay on top of what's going on and don't just leave your loved one there. Mine didn't have a bath schedule for quite a while when he first got there. Don't just take anything for granted. I think the people there really try to do what they're supposed to do. But for my dad, he feels trapped there because it's a secured community for people with dementia. So he's not as comfortable as I would like him to be. I would prefer that cleanliness be better, especially in his bathroom.

I thought Charter Senior Living of Bowie was okay. The rooms were small, but the staff was really nice. For us, they were tied with another facility for 2nd / 3rd choice when it came to decision time.

From what I saw on our tour of Charter of Vinings, the people that work there were wonderful and seemed to really care about the residents. But the facility itself was really in need of some TLC. It was old and aging and hadn’t been maintained.

Good community, just too far from family to visit for our loved one.

The lady who I worked with during our tour and after the fact was very pleasant and I enjoyed working with her. The facility did not have showers in the rooms in memory care and that is something that we had to have.