My mother moved to The Grove (Kensington Park's dementia care building) last June because of her Alzheimer's. When I first determined my mother needed to move from independent living to assisted living, I did a lot of research. I toured lots of residencies before deciding on Kensington Park. Although I had never worked with them before, what swayed me was Kensington Park was smaller inside than other residencies. It was a little less overwhelming, and more contained physically in a beautiful setting. It was also a hair less expensive than some of the other places, and their staffing level has a higher than average ratio- or at least comparable to other residencies.

They did a great job helping my brother and I plan and execute my mother's move-in. The Director of Services at that time helped us plan really well for the move and get the details straightened out ahead of time. The move went really smoothly. The staff did a god job in general helping my mother make an adjustment. Moving is difficult for anyone, but especially with a person with dementia, new changes in the environment like different people are a lot to deal with.

There were two things that did not go so well. One was that there was a misunderstanding about the need for private duty care that resulted in a humongous first bill we were not expecting. To their credit, the folks at Kensington worked through it. It was not totally clear that there was going to be such a degree of private care and they ended up charging my mother a ton of money the first month. It took a while to work it out, but we ended up compromising.

The other negative thing that happened was that in her second week at The Grove, my mother got out the front door and walked all the way down to the highway. She was agitated, wondering where she was, and wanted to go home. After that, they gave her a wander guard and changed their security system.

They did call and tell me that it happened. They are good at communicating and it is pretty easy to get in touch with people. Whether it be the Memory Care Director, the nurses, or the wellness office, I can always reach them. They always call if something comes up, like a new medication, a new symptom, anything. They are very good at communicating.