The Club at Briarcliff Manor

Dana p

My grandmother was a resident of the club in memory care as she has dementia. What happened to her is horrible and in fact traumatizing and I write this review as the issue never was resolved, the staff said there was nothing they could do, and I want to avoid this happening to anyone else. My grandmother had another resident repeatedly come into her room during the night. One night, she had fallen out of her chair and was on the floor, the man came in and sat in her chair and was kicking her and basically using her as an ottoman as she cried for him to get out. She is not in great shape physically so she was unable to get up and eventually gained the strength to crawl into the bathroom to escape him. We also only know if this incident because we had a camera set up in her room (which the staff was aware of and allowed). My mother had to call the club in the middle of the night for someone to go in and intervene. Had she not checked the camera IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT who knows how long it would have taken for someone to come in. Now, my family understands that the people in mind care are not in the right state of mind so it is not the other residents fault. Where was the night staff!? The real disappointment and why this issue is bigger than one bad incident is because after this, The club said there is nothing they can do about him going into her room. We suggested the staff watch the camera in the hallway to make sure no one leaves their room in the middle of the night and they said it was not possible. They said they cannot discuss another resident and dismissed the incident all together. The man continued to go in her room after this, multiple times. Again, we were told there was nothing they could do. Please DO NOT TRUST THESE PEOPLE WITH YOUR LOVED ONES. In a memory care facility they should be prepared to deal with these types of incidents, they should protect their residents. The scary thing is for those who don’t have cameras. Had we not had the camera, we probably would have trusted the club and thought my grandma was imagining or making it up because of her condition. This is completely unacceptable. Whether you are my family or the family of the resident who wanders, they are not taking care of either and not keeping either of them safe.

Marilyn

The Club at Briarcliff Manor was very, very nice. I was so interested in this one particular unit, and the tour director knew I was interested, and somebody came right after me the very same day and did the tour and put a down payment on it. And instead of her calling me and saying, "You know, somebody came in right after you and she is interested, are you? Do you want to put a down payment before I take it from her?" And I would have said yes. And so I lost it, so I was so upset. But I mean, it's a beautiful place. It's brand new. It's very luxurious. The physical structure is very nice. Everyone was very nice. I didn't meet that many people, and the tour director introduced me to people along the way. They had so many activities going on. I mean, it was unbelievable. I could have been busy from nine o'clock in the morning till eight o'clock at night if I was interested in all the different things. They have a lot of extra services, like they have valet services, so if you have a car, which I do and I drive, I would bring the car up to the front door, they help me out, and then they drive the car away to your parking spot. They have bridge clubs, they have book clubs, they have Scrabble contests. They have all kinds of levels of exercise, which I'm not interested in. They have a walking club, a book club, they have music entertainment, and they have movies every night in the movie theater. They have lectures and opera lectures. They show opera in HD when it's on. I mean, these are the things that I'm interested in. They have a paint class, and an art studio.

Katherine

My mom is at The Club at Briarcliff Manor. It's newly renovated and so everything is brand new. She has River Hudson views from her one-bedroom apartment. Her meals are included. There's a movie theater, an exercise room, an art studio, and physical therapy. It also has independent living and a memory care unit, and a rooftop terrace where you can actually see the New York City skyline. They ran a promotion for a year of house rent. The staff members are lovely actually, because when she went in she was quarantined, so I quarantined with her for five days. They have a care team on each floor, so I got to meet the nurses and aides. They have an art room, bingo, music, and entertainment. Because of the quarantine, some of the activities are on hold right now. When the quarantine is over they can go shopping and they have a bus. She was close to home, which is what she wanted. She said if she had to leave her home, this was a good place to be. At this point nothing has gone wrong. They have taken good care go her. They're very responsive to my inquiries if I call with an issue. She didn't feel good one day, so I called and they checked on her within an hour. If I have an issue, the CEO calls me back. I ate there for five days when I was quarantined with her. The food was good. We had to eat in our room. They brought our meals to us, so I really didn't get the dining room experience. The activities are on hold right now, but when she was moving around the building she had free rein to go anywhere she wanted in the building and she went to the movies, to the music. She doesn't play cards so she didn't do that, but they were available. Right now they're on hold. They're supposed to come off quarantine on December 24th, Christmas Eve, so that would be a nice Christmas present for them.