Buckingham Heights Memory Care

Google reviews

• S
  susan grabowski (wheeze) 3 weeks ago

  My mom moved into Buckingham Heights after more than two years in another facility. At the time, Buckingham was a noticeable improvement, and there were many staff members who treated her with genuine kindness, patience, and affection. I remain grateful for that care. Over time, however, our experience with communication and collaboration became more complicated. As my mom's dementia progressed and her needs changed, my sister and I increasingly felt that our questions, observations, and requests were sometimes met with defensiveness rather than curiosity and a willingness to work together. Following a serious medical event, Mom spent nearly a week in the hospital. That experience was illuminating. The hospital staff welcomed our involvement, recognized that we knew our mother in ways they could not, and treated us as partners in her care. It helped me recognize what had too often been missing at Buckingham. Caring for someone with dementia is extraordinarily difficult, and I don't expect any facility to get everything right. But I do believe that families should be able to raise concerns without those concerns being interpreted as criticism of the people providing care. For anyone considering memory care for a loved one, I would encourage you to look beyond the facility, programming, and day-to-day care. Pay close attention to how leadership responds when you ask difficult questions or disagree. Look for a place where collaboration is genuinely welcomed, not just when things are going smoothly, but especially when they aren't. There were good people at Buckingham who cared deeply about my mom. I don't want that to be lost in this review. But I have come to believe that compassion and competent care must be accompanied by openness, accountability, and a genuine partnership with families.

• H
  Helen Claunch 4 months ago

  My 93 year old mom has lived at Buckingham Heights for over three years now. I moved her from another memory care where she was miserable and poorly cared for. I was determined to find a place she’d be safe, genuinely well-cared for and as happy as possible. I found that in Buckingham Heights. In my search I did something I highly recommend: I “staked out” facility parking lots to speak to people as they came and went. Do they have a loved one there? Do they work there? What do they honestly think? People were happy to speak with me and their input was invaluable. I also showed up unannounced and asked for materials I could take to review. I wanted to see if it felt open and welcoming or not. To talk to marketing I had a list of questions that started with my top concern: staffing ratio and staff turnover. Without enough staff good care simply isn’t possible. This was an unsolvable problem with my mom’s first community. A community has to be able to attract the right people, who genuinely want to work with people with dementia, and then provide the training and support to retain them. Training should be ongoing, staff should work as a team and feel supported by management. And, yes, they need decent pay, though no one in this field is paid what they deserve---that’s just the world we live in. There’s a terrible shortage of direct care staff at all levels of healthcare. The ability to get and keep good people is the true measure of what a community can actually deliver. Buckingham Heights has 5, 10, 15 and 20 year lists reflecting staff longevity---with direct care staff on all of them. That’s quite unusual and very telling. They are ONLY memory care, unlike my mom’s last community. The building is all one level, residents have freedom of movement which includes access to interior courtyards and various spaces to visit or just relax. My mom no longer feels trapped on a segregated upper floor and no longer spends most of her time “hiding out” in her room

In the order Google returned them. Not verified by Caring Advisor.