3 Star User Review
I agree wholeheartedly with the family member who laments the recent changes in management at Fellowship Village, and I find it suspicious that three such glowing rebuttals appeared within three days of his review. I think it is clear that these were solicited if not actually written by the management.
My mother, too, has been at FV for more than a decade. She has always been a very positive person, but over the past year, she has become increasingly dissatisfied with life at the Village.
She is very active for her age and used to enjoy the outings that were offered. She now feels that fewer, less appealing day trips are being made available. A recent trip that was billed as a tour of Brooklyn, for instance, turned out to be a drive-by of one site in Brooklyn and the rest of the day in Manhattan. No compensation was offered to the busload of unhappy former Brooklyn residents.
Unlike the alleged parent of one of the other reviewers, she does not find the new management sympathetic or responsive. When she has had occasion to speak with the new CEO about her concerns she has felt patronized and ultimately ignored.
The lack of services on weekends is another cause for concern. In the past, there were maintenance people and medical staff available to deal with emergencies. Not anymore. A friend of my mother's recently had the misfortune to discover that her toilet was clogged on a weekend and had to wait until Monday for it to be repaired. Was there not a single person on the grounds who could have made a visit with a plunger?
The other reviewer seems to be content with a nurse telling his parent to go to the hospital or call 911. I am not. My mother, like many of her generation, does not like to make waves. She would never do either of those things. She needs someone to help her assess the urgency of her condition and take appropriate action, which might well be to tell her to "take some ibuprofen and see the doctor on Monday." But we chose a CCRC for her partially because we didn't want her to have to make such decisions on her own. The presence of a skilled nursing facility on premises was a selling point, but what good is it if the skilled nurse is not permitted to get involved?
I think Fellowship Village has the potential to be what it once was, but I believe it will take a conscious effort, initiated, perhaps, by the board of directors, to make the well-being of the residents top priority. Until that happens, my recommendation will be half-hearted.