Bartlett Woods

Jennifer S

May 1, 2023

Please do not send your senior loved one to live at Bartlett Woods. My Mom lived there for several years and all through COVID because she needed assisted living care after a dx of Multiple Myeloma.Then she had a close call w/ a hemorrage during surgery that caused dementia after loss of oxygen to her brain. It wasn't the facilities fault that she became isolated due to COVID but during that time we couldn't even get on the wait list to visit her (my youngest daughter and I live in CT) when we came in August of 2020. My Mom was very upset at losing the ability to socialize but at least she had her own apartment, bathtub, kitchen etc.and a social network w/other residents/staff. Fast forward to the beginning of April 2023 my Moms dementia had progressed, largely because they were feeding her nothing but processed junk food (a person with cancer & dementia should be eating a keto type no sugar/carbs/dairy and organic foods and should also be taking nutritional supplements). She was actually diagnosed w/vitamin & nutritional deficiency due to insufficient food! Then they hired someone to supervise her in her unit because they felt she was at risk bc of her dementia. My Mom is an alpha type person who does not like to be told she isn't allowed to leave or treated like a child. They apparently aren't trained with how to de-escalate a person w/ dementia because there was an incident where my mother was accused of slapping this person...(something I can't imagine her ever doing) then she was evicted and taken to Pen Bay. She had just paid her rent and Mary refused to allow anyone in her apt except my estranged sister who is her POA. Unfortunately my sister was in the hospital very sick herself so my Mom was suddenly thrust into upheaval w/nowhere to go. Her dementia has declined so fast from the anxiety of this incident and being moved around that she is now being moved to Sussman House! When her cancer is better! She paid an incredible amount of money to Bartlett Woods and then to Crawford Commons where she only stayed for 2 weeks before being xferred again to Pen Bay bc her health declined so badly. Mary at Bartlett Woods refused to even speak to me, was rude & acted annoyed literally saying "this has been so hard on ME all week and I'm going to take the weekend off and then get back to you." She never did get back to me. When we spoke she said I was "the 3rd person she had never heard of" to call about my Mother & that people had just showed up & "there was talk about looking for money in her apt." I told her I am my mothers eldest child and offered to send my birth certificate & driver's license to prove it, she could look through old signins to see I had indeed visited my mother there or just look in her apartment where there are photos of me...she refused saying she wasn't speaking to anyone but my sister and she was "protecting" my moms belongs. No one but my stepbrother had been to Bartlett asking to get in and he didn't even know what had happened, he was trying to just visit her so to accuse him of trying to get into her apt and look for money is ludicrous! I only called bc I wanted to hear from her what had occurred which she refused to discuss with me. She offered no prorated reimbursement of my mother's money back to her after being evicted at the beginning of the month and wouldn't let anyone get the things she needed. My daughter had to buy $200 worth of necessities at Walmart bc of this. My Mom would not be at the Sussman House right now if Mary had not evicted her into this upheaval that forced her into a fast track of dying. She's giving up. After speaking to several people who have worked in home health care over 30 years, I have learned this is common with Mary and Bartlett Woods...to setup a situation she knows will end up with eviction, leaving vulnerable elderly ppl with nowhere to go, pitting family members against eachother and offering to protect their belongings so that no reimbursement is due, saying they can not return which is illegal. This woman should be removed from her position!