Brookdale Niskayuna

My father lived here for 2 months and his health declined significantly. I was promised that there would be 24 hour care and that he could press a button and help would come. This never happened. All of the promises told to us by Jennifer were lies. As soon as I moved my father in the staff were no where to be found. Everyone was always in a "meeting" and these meetings lasted for hours. My poor father would press the button and would wait almost an hour for the aides to come to his room. The workers were not nice at all. I am not sure they understood my father or me when we spoke to them. One time after complaining a hundred times, the aides would come and press my fathers button as they are supposed to do when they come to you room. As soon as they pressed his button they would leave and then come back 30 minutes later. They were always rude. We were paying for 2 showers a week but my father had one shower in 2 weeks. Sometimes they told him they would come back but never did. Don't be fooled by appearances. This place looked lovely on the day of our tour but turned out to be the opposite upon arrival.

Wynwood was the biggest disappointment! My dad lived there are the care could not have been worse. The aides never came when he called them and when and if they did come it was after he waited an hour. These aides were the most unfriendly women I have ever met. They were always rushing and trying to make my dad move quicker. They had no patience and spoke mean to my dad. I complained about them but nothing changed. I heard from another resident that there were only a few on staff for the 4 floors. I wish I had learned more about this place before I let my dad go there. We moved dad out as soon as we got an opening at another place.

Beware! Wynwood may look pretty on the outside but it is ugly on the inside. My parents planned to live there forever but had to leave after only 2 weeks because it was so terrible. The aides(and I am not sure these women have any qualifications) are the mean and rough with residents including my mother. They do not understand English and do not come to help when you press your button for help. They are supposed to come within 15 minutes but that never happened with my parents. They had to wait 40 minutes to an hour every time they needed help. There are 3 or 4 aides only for the whole building!! One night 911 had to be called because a few patients needed immediate help and there weren't enough aides to help everyone. [removed] Do not send anyone who you love to this place. I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't reports of [removed] filed with the town.

Wynwood will nickel and dime you to death. They are not effective in reacting to calls from the residents, and it is difficult to receive a return call from management. We were paying $8100 per month, and when we relocated to Wynwood the cost was $3100.

My mother was a resident of Wynwood for two months, and during that time she did not adjust well. I am a not a local caregiver, but was reassured by the people I met during the tour that they would care for mom's specific needs. One Sunday afternoon mom was quite distressed, and the best the front desk person could do was to send a caregiver up to her apartment. She promised she'd call me back. I never received a call back. There is NO email communication with families, and when I asked for a copy of my mom's medications, they were handwritten out. I think Wynwood would be a good place for a very strong, flexible, independent resident. My mom was not any of these, and I was disappointed that there was not more communication with me when mom was clearly on a downward spiral. One more thing. I strongly recommend changing to the physician who visits Wynwood each week. That made all the difference in getting mom back on track.

In the past year or so Wynwood was taken over by Brookdale Senior Living, a national corporate entity, and I understand from residents that the quality of life has deteriorated since then. Brookdale is spending plenty of money on cosmetics, while reducing staff or staff hours. As a result, residents do not receive the timely and complete care that they pay for. Staff complain regularly too as they are not able to provide the level of care they used to. Although the staff are generally responsive there are far too few of them per shift to provide the level of care that is needed for the number of residents at the facility.

My mother has been living at the Wynwood Niskayuna for almost a month. She has a studio apartment as all residences are individual except for married couples. The apartment is a good size for one person. Our overall impression is of a clean appearing and clean smelling facility. The staff is friendly. Aides are neat and appear trained to help the residents with activities of daily living as needed. The dining room is always clean and the residents have menu choices for all meals. My only comment is I have had to be watchful to be sure my mother was receiving the level of care we had contracted for. Since my mother doesn't remember specifics of her day, I have noted some discrepancies.. For example, she was to have two aides assist her in transferring from bed to chair, chair to toilet, etc. I had noted on several occasions only one aide. This has just been resolved. Like anywhere, the resident needs an advocate to speak for them if they cannot do this for themselves.

They have some activities, maybe could offer them a little more often. The rooms were a good size. Initially the communication wasn't all that great there were a couple of things that prevented us from getting us in when we wanted to. There were some things that would have made it easier for her they could have given us a heads up about how long certain things take to get done. I dealt with like three of four different people and one person could have told me that you will need to speak with this person or that instead of just a hit or miss.

Everything seems to be going quite good. I am not overly pleased that they have announced a rate increase after two months. My parents seem to be very happy there. Mom said the food is excellent, dad says it's terrible he can't chew it. They seem to go to excercise every day, and dad goes to play penny poker. There should be something in the contract that says they will honor the rate for six months or a year or something. The movers they recommended were quite good. When we were setting up we accidentally pushed the button for emergencies and they were there in like two seconds, before we even knew we pushed it, so they have a good response time to an emergency alarm.

It's been great. There is a lot to do. The one thing that my mother tells me is that the food is could be a little better.

I want to thank you for all your help. I live out of state and was given your name from A Place for Mom. My mother is my grandmother's caregiver. They are very happy with Wynwood. Grandma is doing well and adjusting to her new home. Thank you!

It was clean and nice, but everything extra was added onto the bill a la carte. The price would keep going up as she needed more things, and I didn't like that. We chose a community that had an all inclusive pricing structure.

I think that it's a lovely place, its so lovely that it enocurages family and friends to visit. A lot of people don't want to go into places that aren't well maintained or pretty and they do go out of their way to make sure its lovely and I know my mom and other residents appreciate how up to date and well decorated it is. I do think it is a little bit on the expensive side for what they offer, specifically the upfront charge you have to pay for various activities. There really aren't a lot of activities, it is a one time charge, but it doesn't seem like there's anything other than bingo. They don't really encourage friendships and I think they need something more social or a middle school choir or something that they can go and look at. I would like to see something that is for the peopel who are there and is something they all can enjoy.

Very nice place. But not a high enough staff-to-resident ratio for the cost of additional care.