Chandler Hall

Patricia

I did a tour of Chandler Hall. I would say it's bare bones. The apartment seemed very nice. They call them cottages. It had a nice modern kitchen, had good light, and was clean, but it was very small. We only met one person and she was delightful. They don't offer any food for the independent living there. You can get some food if you pay for it, I think it's the way it goes there. They did seem to have a gym. The staff who gave me the tour was excellent. The facility looks pretty good. What I like the best was, you could walk into Newtown from there if you're a good walker.

Mary Ann

Chandler Hall is run very impeccably. The location is great because you're near stores and within walking distance to the center of the town. It's very picturesque. They have very nice people and nice surroundings. They have many activities, like movie nights and bus trips. They have a swimming pool.

beverley56

When I visited my aunt I was amazed at how kind and helpful all of the staff members were and the exceptional care they provided to her. The facility itself is beautiful and it has a friendly feel to it. Each resident gets a lot of personal attention. I recommend Chandler to anyone needing assisted living/respite care/hospice, etc. I would trust them with my own family members.

ItchyB

After what I saw & my family experienced, I would not in good conscious recommend Chandler Hall's rehab wing/nursing home, or assisted living wing to anyone (I can't speak to their independent living area as I have no first hand experience with that portion. My father, who suffers from dementia, was at Chandler for close to a three week period. He had two rehab stays, each lasting a week long, as well as a 5 day respite stay in the Hicks Memory Care assisted living unit in between his two rehab stays. Over this period I was very disappointed & shocked by the lapses in basic care by the staff, here are some of the many issues I encountered; 1. during my father's first rehab, I arrived three days in a row by midday to find my father not wearing his dentures and not knowing where they were. The staff neglected to make sure his dentures were in before he was taken to breakfast so he had to gum his food three days in a row. I had complained to staff including the nursing director after the first instance and yet it continued for two more days. One of the days I found his dentures in the pocket of the pants he wore the night before which were in the hamper waiting to be laundered. (note: staff assisted with undressing and dressing my father each day and did not check the pockets obviously). I'm glad I found his dentures before his clothes were taken to be laundered or who know if we would've found his dentures. 2. One day came into my father's room to find an industrial dryer on the floor drying the room's carpet. At first I assumed they had done a routine carpet cleaning but upon finding my father's socks sopping wet in the hamper, I questioned the staff about it and they informed me that during the night the sink pipe had burst and flooded the room (Note: I had spoken to the same staff a short time earlier yet they had chosen not to inform me of the flooding until I questioned things later). 3. One day I arrived to find my dad's beard had been completely shaved off by staff. In 40 years I had never seen my dad without a beard. I was at Chandler Hall for 7-10hours a day, every day, yet staff never thought to ask me how my father likes his facial hair kept & took it upon themselves to shave him during the small window of the day I was not by his bedside. They could've just looked at the multitude of photos we had put in the room of my father...all of which showed him with a beard to see he wears a beard! When your loved one has dementia they are confused by a lot of things, the last thing you want them being confused about is the face their seeing in the mirror. 4. One day I arrived to not find my father in his room, I went to the big TV room to see if they had wheeled him in there as they had started to take him there after breakfast (even though he preferred to remain in his own room where he had his own personal TV). He wasn't in the TV room either, I was heading towards the physical therapy office to see if they had brought him down for a session and out of the corner of my eye I saw my dad's legs sticking out in another room. I went in to find my father fast asleep in another woman's room/bed. Somehow my father was able to get himself down a different hallway, into this woman's room, get out of his wheel chair and into her bed and fall asleep...all that time and yet I am the one who arrived at Chandler mid-day & found him there before anyone on the staff (who are up & down the hallways) noticed he was there. 5. Every day the call-button phone outside the nurses station would be ringing continually throughout the day. I watched on numerous occasions as Staff would just walk by the phone not even glance at the phone to see who in what room was calling for help. Why even have call buttons and chords in rooms if staff is just going to ignore them when residents use them?!? I also watched as other residents in wheel chairs would verbally ask for the help of staff as they walked by, only to have the staff ignore them and walk past. 6. Mealtime in the nursing home dining room can be described as a very inefficient, disorganized, mess. You have to witness it firsthand to understand fully. 7. During his 30 day respite stay at Hicks (which I cut short after only 5 days), bringing things to the attention of my dad's main "personal care giver" when I witnessed very odd or alarming behaviors from my dad often just got a very nonchalant, dismissive response from her, with her often saying "the dad you know is slipping away", "it's a whole new ballgame now", or "all the old rules no longer apply." While that may be true to some extent, I know my father's better than anyone and would hope that if I'm alarmed by something I'm seeing and I bring that to the attention to staff, it would at least get investigated and checked into before being dismissed. 8. Chandler is very aggressive at getting agreements signed and making sure they got paid promptly on day one (which I was fine with) yet when I ended my father's respite stay early due the all the deficiencies In care I had witnessed, they take 30 days to refund our money back to us. In addition, I had to call after 30 days had elapsed because we had not received the promised refund check in the promised allotted time only to be told that someone had forgotten to submit it so we had to wait an additional week for their next check run. 9. In two different rooms my father stayed in, the sink dripped 24hrs a day. In general the place is showing it's age and is a depressing environment Not all is negative at Chandler, there were some positives, I really liked the Physical therapy staff who are there onsite (note: they are employed by an outside company...not by Chandler). The Lunch Cafe, which is located in another building separate from the Building that contains the nursing home/rehab & Hicks Memory care unit and is where many of the staff eat is awesome. Matt the head chef & his staff do an outstanding job! I wheeled my father there for lunch often as it was a much more pleasant environment (and much better food) for him & I to have lunch together at. There were some other very competent and good staff members I encountered but unfortunately the bad far outweighed the good and in good conscious I couldn't continue to have my father there. It's a shame as due to his and my family's familiarity with the place (his grandmother spent her final years there in the 70s) Chandler was where we had hoped my dad could spend his final months/years. But I saw too many lapses in basic care and too many substandard issues which to me indicate a bigger overall systemic problem going on over at Chandler as opposed to just a couple of substandard employees dropping the ball, so as a result we pulled my father out of there and got him into another facility which has not only been much better care wise, but also surprisingly less in cost than Chandler. I encourage anyone looking for a facility for their loved ones to investigate & look around as there are other places doing a better job than Chandler is doing currently.

T.G.

I toured Chandler Hall, and the staff is excellent. The rooms are very nice. The YMCA is inside the campus, so there are always activities and people around. They have an indoor and an outdoor pool. However, they won't certify me for independent living, and it costs $6,000 a month to live in an apartment.

Thomas

Chandler Hall was very nice. The apartments were small, but they were nice. The activities were very good. There were residents doing some sing-a-longs, some doing games, some were reading, and some were looking at a fish tank.