Whitney Place at Sharon

If your loved one has Alzheimer's or Dementia, they are not going to get the care you think they will when you hear “expert memory care.” Dementia training is a min of 4 hours and a max of 8 hours. As with most ALs or SNFs, they prefer residents who are either not ambulatory or subdued and do not cause problems. If your loved one has moderate to late-stage dementia or Alzheimer's, they will not want them there. You will get calls all day and all night long, your loved one will be sent to the ER if they are difficult to deal with and it will cost a lot of money. You also will have to hire someone to help your loved one in addition to the $9k a month they are charging. Do I think this would be different somewhere else? No, I don’t. But it was heartbreaking to see the lack of care at both Whitney Place and Life Care (who evicted our loved one because they let them walk out the door and that was somehow our fault). To add to that, it seems you either must have an endless amount of cash or nothing whatsoever to get the care you need. Having some money is the worst spot to be in. Make sure you look at every single invoice you get to confirm they did not add fees, increase the rent, or mark a month as unpaid. When my loved one was sent to the ER for the last time by Whitney Place, they were placed in the geriatric psych ward and then ultimately ended up in Hospice. While trying to deal with this sad situation, I am got no response from Whitney Place on how to end the relationship there and move out my loved one's things. I called and emailed many people for 15 days and then once it was well into the next month, they wanted to be paid for rent. They waited until almost a week into the next month to reach out. They emailed me as if I never reached out by phone and email all that time. In addition to waiting until a new month to contact me, they claimed a month's rent was not paid and wanted more than $17k. I have no idea what happened to the $3k in “community fees” that was collected upon moving in or the last month’s rent. There is a class action settlement for this very thing happening right now, so it is clear there was something happening. To negotiate what we owed took an exceptionally long time. When I mailed a check with all the money I had asking to settle in full, it took 4 months for them to contact me. Because I did not hear from them either way, I put a stop payment on the check. I assumed they did not agree, and we would need to go to court to settle. If that was the case, I did not want a huge check floating around for any more months. When they finally got in touch it was to ask why I put a stop payment on that check. I finally got the matter settled, but not to my satisfaction – I feel like I was fed a lot of untruths, false promises and put through an extreme amount of stress, financial stress, and heartbreak the entire time my loved one resided there. Remember, even if it is a memory ward, an Assisted Living is an apartment complex with extra services you have to pay for. The rent is high (to cover meals and whatever), but you will always need to pay more for the services they offer and hire another home health person to pitch in. Extraordinarily little assistance happens at assisted livings. Do not expect professionalism from any of the clinical staff. Any time of day when visiting our loved one, the staff (with a few exceptions) would be on their phones at full volume texting, watching videos or playing games while ignoring the residents. My son helped more than one elderly dementia patient because they were being ignored by the staff or the staff just barked orders at the elderly person instead of helping them. When I would mention this to their leadership team it was laughed off or joked about. I do not think this is exclusive to Whitney Place, it is just another heartbreaking disappointment in the world of elder care. Good luck to anyone reading this review. I hope you can get the care you need for your loved one.

The front receptionists were very friendly and helpful to us signing in and signing out. It’s a beautiful building. The employees need to be more friendly and helpful to all residents. The person I visited, who sits in a wheelchair all day and sometimes may get up to walk with her walker, has been sent to the hospital several times for dehydration. She is not receiving enough water to drink during the day and between meals. There was less than one bottle of water in her mini fridge. Residents must be checked on every 30 minutes, at least. I was there for over an hour and no one checked in on her to see if she needed to go to the bathroom or if she needed anything to eat or drink. There were two workers on their phones right outside her room with a group of residents watching TV. Residents need to be more attentive by your employees because that’s the service they’re paying for and it’s what assisted living means. I hope to see improvements during my next visit. Thank you.

My parents moved to Whitney Place together in December and were made to feel at home immediately. The staff are caring, attentive and professional. The nurses and activity staff are always open to communication and collaboration to provide the best possible personalized experience. My mother was recently widowed. Because she is already at home at Whitney, she feels safe and supported by the staff. They check on her frequently and are empathic and encouraging to her. Knowing that she is surrounded by compassion while in a safe environment is beyond measure for me and my family.

Whitney Place has been terrific for my parents. The facility and the staff are excellent. Everyone there is professional, and also extremely friendly and helpful. I am very happy knowing that my parents are well cared for and that they are in a safe, healthy environment.

Whitney Place has proven to be a lifesaver, literally. My mom suffered a stroke in December, and could not return to independent living in her condo. When we moved her into Whitney Place, we were thankful that her speech / physical / occupational therapies and the visiting nurse were all on-site; it was easy for her to recover, because she just had to focus on living her best life! Now she is doing terrific, LOVES the social programming from movies to paint night, takes meals in the dining room with friends she's made here... it's a total 180 from what we imagined at the end of last year. We are so very thankful to the dedicated, expert staff! Also the physical space is just super comfortable and beautiful; it's a great environment to visit, have a meal with friends, and just really enjoy life. My mom is testament to that!