Benton House of Decatur

Benton House of Decatur's wonderful staff provides excellent care in a beautiful environment. They helped us with the transition. The Memory Care is personalized and dignified. The arts and enrichment activities add quality to each person's time. The thought provoking discussions include everyone. Our family greatly appreciates the care our loved one is receiving.

I didn’t like the vibe of this place from Day 1. Never even unpacked the boxes. My apartment is tiny, and I particularly don’t like how close my recliner is to my TV —— important because as far as I am concerned, there is nothing to do all day EVERY DAY except watch TV. Unless you love playing BINGO and then you’ve hit the jackpot: there’s a BINGO game almost Every afternoon. The food is Basic (the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are pretty good). I am moving out after 4 months.

My mother moved to Benton House Decatur about a year ago after the death of my father. Mom had just recently moved from another facility in the metro area. Prior to that time, she was a resident in another facility in Georgia. After these changes in residences, we were concerned about mom adjusting to her new normal. Then we found Benton House of Decatur. The administrative team at Benton House worked very diligently with my family to ensure that mom made a smooth transition to her new home. The key to mom's success at the Benton House are the following: a lovely aesthetically appealing and clean facility, multiple recreational activities for the residents, and the availability of Hollie and her staff. The staff's display of positive interactions with mom and the other residents at the Benton House is greatly appreciated.

I submitted a review three years ago after we moved our father into Benton House of Decatur. At the time, we were very pleased with the transition of moving Dad. The staff members were extremely helpful and pleasant, and I wish I could say the same thing when we moved Dad out of Benton House this past August. In the past almost three years I have learned a lot about assisted living/memory care facilities. The first question I would recommend asking is how long have your administrators and staff been at the facility. I am disappointed to say that Benton House of Decatur lacks this consistency. In the three years that our father was a resident, there were four different Executive Directors, at least five changes in the Resident Services Director position, and the unfortunate elimination of the Memory Care Coordinator position, which I believe is vital to running a successful memory care facility. Along with this lack of consistency, I was disappointed with the revolving door of caregivers in the Orchard area specifically. In fact, I cannot think of one who has been there for the entire duration of our father’s stay (which was less than three years). This creates a specific problem for memory care residents who are known to do better with routine and in stable environments with consistent staff. Each new caregiver was a stranger to the residents and someone who had to learn each individual’s routine, likes, dislikes, etc. As a caregiver of a parent with Alzheimer’s, consistency is always a major concern. Another concern, is the lack of training specific to residents with Alzheimer’s and other memory loss diseases. All in all, I am saddened to say that my experience with Benton House of Decatur started out wonderful and then steadily declined over the past three years. I hope they are able to retain and properly train their staff to better attend to their memory care residents.