Five Star Senior Living

We were promised that my grandmother could have her dog move in with her and now they say she cannot. I wish I had taped the tour but at least I had my aunt with me and she also heard everything that was promised. My grandmother is very stressed and misses her dog so much. The only reason I can't move my grandmother right away is that they do provide full medical capabilities and the stress it would put on her. The staff even agrees that the dog should be allowed to stay, he is very well behaved and would be good for all of the residents. They promised a room to my grandmother and that the dog could come and live with her. When we got there they temporarily moved her to another room and said the dog could not stay. They said he could visit her until she was moved to her regular room. Then they told me his visits could only happen if I stayed with the dog and took him with me when I went to my apartment that does not allow dogs. We were going to pay the fee for a staff member to be in charge of the dog at the community, but now they are saying that dogs are not allowed where my grandmother is residing. She misses her companion and best friend!

When I toured the community they were in the process of redoing the assisted living area so I wasn't able to see any of the apartments due to the construction. I had been told the wing wouldn't be ready until possibly the fall which concerned me. The residents that had been in the assisted living wing had to be moved over to the memory care wing and that wouldn't have worked for my mother she would have been miserable. From what I had been told the assisted living was going to be like the independent living side. So with the assisted living side being under construction, I decided on another option just because I didn't want to have to move my mom twice once to some room that was open while construction was being completed then move her again once the assisted living wing was complete.

This is an older community and it did not seem very clean when we toured. The people we met were nice. The rooms were small and they had the feeling of a hospital room.

I was not impressed when I toured this community. The people I met were like high pressure sales people. The community was clean. The community is in a nice area.

We have 2 family members in Independent Living at The Forum; we visit one to three times weekly. There's both good & bad news -- read more. 5-Stars: The good news: The Forum's independent Living is a really NICE facility. The staff consistently address residents by name. "Good morning, Mr. XXXX." The door men / security staff are very well-trained and courteous; the dining hall staff are attentive and polite. All the public spaces -- the lobby, elevator areas, hallways, dining room, activity rooms -- are beautifully furnished. Live orchids are always in the lobby. The food is high-quality and attractively served; the menu is nicely varied. Breakfast and mid-day meals are buffet-style with wait staff providing drinks and assistance; evening meals are ordered restaurant-style, and wine is available. Residents are offered interesting art classes and have the opportunity to participate in Forum-offered trips to cultural events (i.e. the Opera, etc.) or lunches out on the town. Throughout the year, there are fun on-site celebrations -- authentic TX barbecue during the Rodeo, grilled American favorites and live entertainment outside for the 4th of July, and many more too numerous to mention. In the month of their birthdays, residents are invited to a lovely champagne luncheon. One guest is complimentary, and others may attend for a reasonable fee. Happy Hours are offered twice-weekly. There is a phenomenal effort by all staff to provide a really wonderful holiday event in December. Residents are encouraged to invite friends and/or family, again for a reasonable fee. The Forum is decorated beautifully; the food is absolutely top-notch, and the entire first floor is converted into a lovely dining experience. Live entertainment is provided in each dining space; everyone -- staff, residents, guests & tiny tots -- are dressed in festive attire. It's a really nice event, and residents get to meet each other's children and grandchildren. In all these aspects, the Forum is 5-star senior living. 1-Star: The bad news: We noticed both of our loved one's apartments had very high humidity this summer. We called maintenance repeatedly; they never answer the phone!!! We left voice messages but received no responses. I took time to physically track down a maintenance man; he explained that we had the a/c unit fan set incorrectly; we corrected that in both apartments. In one apartment, we were shocked to find mold growing on the upholstered couch and chairs. We called maintenance and left messages again. Weeks passed before we got a response. The head guy had been on vacation. (And NO ONE ELSE can check voice messages?!?!!?) The Forum wanted permission to spray the furniture with MOLDEX. We didn't want a heavy chemical presence in the apartment; we researched the product. It's NOT recommended for use on upholstery!! We -- ourselves -- successfully used tea tree oil and rubbing alcohol to kill the mold. We still needed to fix the humidity issue in both apartments; we left more messages. We noticed mildew on the wood cabinets and furniture in the other loved one's apartment. We left more messages. I showed the mildew to the marketing person who had assisted us with both move-ins; I asked for a plan of action and a timeline. The response, THREE WEEKS LATER, was an invitation to a phone conference with a mold / mildew expert. The remediation has yet to begin. Meanwhile, our loved ones' allergies and asthma have intensified. There is clearly a huge problem with humidity / mold / mildew at The Forum. Check out the huge wet spot on the ceiling in the corner of the lobby! I don't know how many apartments are affected, but 100% of our family's are.

I did not like this community. The person in charge was great. The place was dirty and I did not feel it was the type of place I would want to be so I would not put my mom there.

This community does not have air conditioned hallways for the residents to move from building to building. They have to take a golf cart to get to the cafeteria. They also do not have a dining area like a restaurant it is cafeteria style.

My mom moved there after suffering a stroke. When we arrived on her move-in day, the receptionist who was supposed to give us the key to her room was clueless; she had no idea about my mom's arrival or where the key was. It took about 20 minutes, with the receptionist calling different people, for her to find the key. We later asked the receptionist what time breakfast was served the next day (Sunday). She said breakfast ended at 10 a.m. My siblings arrived on Sunday at 9;30 to have breakfast with Mom. When we got to the dining room, it was closed. Breakfast had ended at 9:30. We also observed signs up about all activities being cancelled due to the residents being sick. Four days later, my mom caught the illness (gastroenteritis) and had to be hospitalized for 3 days. She came back to FM after being discharged. When my mom moved in, she did not have the strength in her hand to unlock her door. She was almost in tears and said she could not leave her room for fear of being locked out. After several days, I asked the staff to change the lock to one that did not require so much strength. This is when they offered to put a "pistol grip" on her key that made it easier to unlock. Of course that worked, but why did they not issue the key with that grip. After all, FM is intended for elderly residents and problems with the key must be common. My mom told me that one morning when she went to breakfast, there was none. No employees showed up. Two weeks after my mom moved in, she wanted to go home. She hated it. She felt isolated and miserable. So, we moved her back home and made other arrangements. Now FM is insisting that she pay for two months of rent PLUS the non-refundable move-in fee of $3600. In other words, $10,200 for living there for 10 days. So, be warned.

I had two family members at this facility at the same time sharing a room. The assisted living side is extremely expensive and not worth the price. The quality of the food was terrible and lacked variety. If a resident could not eat in the main dining room their meal tray was taken to their room. However, there was a charge for room service. The laundry room was small and my family member's clothes always smelled musty and stale after being washed. Some of their clothing shrunk. There was always a change of staff so it was hard to keep up with staff members going and coming. Staff were not always friendly and caring. At times staff were slow to respond to requests and call buttons. Also, transportation to medical appts was not available daily as I had been led to believe at move-in. Transportation was only available twice weekly. On occasions there were large cockroaches roaming the prop erty. One medication aide dropped on of my mother's pills on the floor and gave the pill to my mother. My mother refused to take the pill as she had seen roaches crawling on the floor near the medication cart. All in all our experience there was not happy and pleasant. I will commend the social director, Cedric on his efforts to provide entertainment and nice social activities for the residents and family members.

My parents have been at Aspenwood for over 2 years. It was good at first, but there has been a complete turnover of staff except for the maintenance man. They have lost some good people. New director does not seem to be able to bring in or attract capable people. Director also does not participate in resident meetings to hear and share ideas and information. Building is over 25 years old and could use an upgrade, particularly for the high price. Low water pressure and lack of hot water has been the latest issue for all residents. Other issues have been HVAC units not working, insulated windows fogging do to broken seals and water valves so old that water can't be shut off to replace a leaking faucet without shutting off a portion of the building. Meals...I hope you like chicken, often. Searching for a new place...

The independent living side appears nice, but the services are lacking. No one to acclimate your parent to anyone else. the cleaning isn't much. Clothes disappear from the laundry rooms. Staff is nice, when your parent actually has some medical issues, the angels people level of expertise is inconsistent. There is a lot of turnover. The front area has been grungy looking from all the time I've seen it, there is no real outdoor area except for where all the cars come and go with exhaust fumes. Don't consider the assisted living, as I a good place for care, as the staff there seem even worse. If your parent is a diabetic, don't expect any special menu choices from them. My mother's AC unit is not really working after I had them fix it twice.

My parent still had the ability to clearly walk and talk. This was not a fit as many residents needing further care or were not as mobile. He was not a fit.

My husband and I toured this facility for my mom and dad. Our tour guide, Carol, was wonderful and we were very impressed. Unfortunately, my sister and brother toured the facility a second time, and they were treated very differently. Their tour guide (not Carol) was very curt and almost unfriendly. They also felt that she was not listening to what they were telling her about the needs of our parents. Needless to say, they were not impressed at all, so we have decided on a different facility for our parents. The lesson we learned is to always tour a facility on different days, so you meet different members of the staff.

We toured this facility for my mom and dad. Our tour guide was not very knowledgeable and she later admitted she had only been on the job a short time. We found the hallways and dining area very dark and dreary. The residents who were eating lunch were totally silent so it did not seem very inviting. They have large two bedroom facilities for assisted living, but otherwise there was not much positive about this place.

My Mother was a resident three and a half years. The facility and room were very satisfactory. Attention to maintaining a constant care schedule - bathing, supervision of staff and communication between the facility doctor requires consistent monitoring by the family. Overall the facility lacks supervision. There is only ONE doctor which services the facility and the doctor will not communicate directly with the family. A Sunday visit can frustrate the family when your Mom's care is not being taken care of consistently.

We entertain there with The Bedpan Band and nobody was happy and the staff was grumpy too, but it was a beautiful place. It just didn't seem like people were happy. It looks like a grand hotel or something. It was just gorgeous but you could just tell that the staff and the people were just not happy people. I didn't have a complete tour but you could just tell people weren't happy and the staff wasn't happy even getting people to their seats to listen to us. It used to be a hotel so I'm sure they aren't apartments but more like hotel rooms.

They weren't professional. They set up an appointment with us and weren't ready for us when we got there. The rooms weren't as nice. It's wasn't as clean, it was a lot noisier than any of the others we saw. I was just generally noisy and the staff was not near as professional as they should have been.

It was a very small lock down community, I thought my father wanted a more social experience (which ended up not even mattering) but I think they also had a higher staff turnover rate.

This is the first facility that I've placed my mother in. They get a zero on communication. I understand that they're going through some management changes but when you place your mother in a facility and you email and call and you don't get a response, that's devastating. You can't run over there everynight to see how your loved one is doing. She's been moved 3 times since she's been there. She's a very high functioning alzheimer's patient and now she's in a house of very low funcitoning people. She's the only one who's ambulatory. I don't think she's in the appropriate house. I've seen good care but I don't think there is enough activity for her. It's very cheery and bright - open and spread out with more space to walk around.

Families really need to stay on top of their loved ones care. If a loved one needs a good amount of care and has cognitive issues but not severe enough for memory care then you probably want to find another facility.