The Lakes at Stillwater

Be cautious about placing your loved one at The Lakes at Stillwater Pearls of Life Memory Care. Read previous reviews of 2 stars and less. Our dad was there for 7 months , admitted in October 2024.At admission we disclosed 6 months of detailed care level and care challenges he was experiencing at home ,with in home nurses. This is why he was moved into memory care. Our dad was accepted for admission without any stated concerns of their ability to care for him. The Lakes Executive Director said in a family care conference after 7 months that “The Lakes is licensed as an assisted living facility with a dementia care unit and is staffed as an assisted living model. Please know we experienced two aides on the floor with responsibility for up to 16 residents . We learned too late that the Lakes is not staffed for Alzheimer’s residents or other residents that require more skilled care as their disease becomes more complex. The Lakes solution to us was to medicate and to hire our own licensed aids to help their staff. Thankfully we were able to relocate our dad. However ,this transition for our dad just 7 months after leaving his home has been difficult for him . The facility has high turnover at the upper level nursing including Director of nursing, RN’s and direct care staff. The Executive Director stated in our meeting “ these ( direct care ) staff are unlicensed. Which is confusing when job description states “experience as CNA or MA”. Seasoned staff train in new aids. We experienced a much better level of care from aids who are directly hired by the lakes as compared to “ Agency “ . When we asked a new hire about specific dementia training , the reply was “ just normal aid training .” We appreciated the care provided by the seasoned aids on the Pearl Garden level 1. When we brought concerns to upper level management we heard comments like “ These people ( care staff )can’t take care of themselves let alone do laundry.” “ He ( your dad )does not have open sores so he’s doing ok.” Other resident’s families told us “You must have a camera in his room .” Infection control issues, care issues were common. Soiled clothing , our dad unkempt etc. We were not aware when moving our dad to The Lakes that the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, was going to be a deal breaker. They advertise/ market” Pearls of Life Memory Care .” Our dad did not receive that level of care . Look beyond the grandeur and beauty of the facility. Ask questions, do your homework before moving a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease to the memory care unit. We would like to acknowledge Dan , head of maintenance, for his kind, gracious help the day we moved our dad .

Extremely disappointed in how things ended for our experience at the lakes. We loved the staff here, the full time caregivers, front desk staff, and activities team were exceptional. The upper management and DON lied to us and didn’t have the whole story about how my dad eloped and would not come up with other options on how to keep him safe. A decision was made and he spent 2 weeks in a hospital bed for no reason when it would’ve just taken one extra screw in each window to secure the device in the windows to prevent them from opening up all the way. The DON claimed he ‘fell into a pile of snow’ when there hadn’t been enough snow for a pile. And said he broke out of his bedroom window which also was false because we secured the window with maintenance the day we moved him to the garden level of memory care (we have pictures of the actual window he escaped from). I’ve been a nurse for 12 years and never had a phone conversation that had so many lies and been told things that felt insincere. For this reason I will never recommend this group or this facility to anyone. We toured other facilities and had 2 other places say they have heard similar complaints from family members whose loved ones have lived here. Unfortunate because the other staff is so great (!!) but your facility was unable to work with us. AT ALL. Julie Kelly no need to respond, I won’t be reaching out to you, hope no one else gets fooled by how nice your facility is.

My wife and I will celebrate our one year anniversary here at The Lakes next week. We are so thankful we came here. The staff, the opportunities for supervised exercise, socializing, facilities, our living quarters, location, etc. make living here a joy.

If I could give this establishment negative stars, I would. But where do I even begin? From the way they treat their residents to how they treat their staff, this place is just horrible. People are quitting left and right, going through 3 almost four heads of nursing in 3 years. & I don't even blame them for leaving. They are expected to do so much with no staff & very little help. One word I can use to describe the people in charge here is Cowardly—just plain old cowards. Don't get me wrong; it is a beautiful establishment. Beautiful campus, but with this beautiful campus, you'd think the care would be similar. Wrong. Horrible work environment & even worse services. If you want your loved ones cared for and treated/looked at like human beings & not a dollar sign, I strongly advise you to take them elsewhere because the Lakes at Stillwater is not the place for that.