Franke Tobey Jones

My grandparents received loving care under difficult circumstances, and FTJ made every effort to let them live together during their last days, which was an extraordinary gift.
My mother moved in 4 months ago, and again special consideration was given to meet her needs and communicate well with her family. The concierge, who makes it her business to smooth the way and solve problems, is a model of patience and people skills, and makes all sorts of things happen in an apparently effortless way. As residents find it more difficult to articulate the finer details of their experience, they are feeling the presence of such kind and effortlessly patient people throughout the facility.
The chef and servers in the dining room, the room cleaners, and so many others are extraordinarily gracious, flexible, and personal, and it is a strong healing influence which helps the residents reset each day from the impatience they may feel from their families or even express with themselves regarding their disabilities.
At times the residents may not really be able to tell these caring staff how much it means, or even be polite, but that is the supreme art of their accomplishment– to be beautiful lights of humanity who sincerely show everyone they are wonderful, important, and liked.
All our business dealings are clearly handled, and the overriding atmosphere is that this is a family supporting enterprise. Everything is low key and oriented to helping the residents enjoy their time. The transportation support, fitness classes, and education and cultural program are far superior to anything we have found. My uncle and aunt are moving in soon, and when the time comes, I expect we will, too.

I have very mixed emotions about this property. My mother lived in Independent as well as assisted living facility at FTJ. The grounds are beautiful, however the facilities are rather old but reasonably well maintained. The challenge for this facility is it is a not-​for-​profit organization. Being a NFP keeps the rates low and make it a good value, however they do not offer all of the services that a for-​profit assisted living facility provides. Based on our experience, the facility is run like it is in the 1980’s. The management and CEO are very inexperienced and seem very inept at handling people in the gap (those not quite ready for living in memory care building). The staff are very strict about the rules and lack creativity in resolving challenges with residents. The management is very reactive and not proactive at ALL! The FTJ management did a very poor job of communicating with the family and constantly threatened to kick my mother out of the facility if she broke any of the rules. This was a very big problem because my mother had dimentia and it would upset her very much and send her into a deep depression and it became constant crises that could have been avoided if the management had worked with us (the family) to resolve any issues.
After my mother passed away, we went to move everything out of her unit and found that a special family ring was missing as was some cash my mother kept in her jewelery box. The facility has said they would investigate the incident, however they have failed to provide us with any feedback.
I think this could be a great facility if they had an experienced management team that had extensive geriatric behavioral training that knew how to truly care for the elderly with compassion and understanding in all phases of aging.