Touchmark at Fairway Village — Attraction in Vancouver

This is long, but I want to write an honest review. I recently moved my mother out of Touchmark’s memory care.

In my opinion, Touchmark is geared towards retirees and people that need assisted living. The staff is friendly and very kind. The place is lovely. But for those that require memory care, TM COMPLETELY misses the mark. For all the money TM charges, they could and should do so much better for their memory care residents. Their memory care grossly lacks mental and emotional stimulation, physical activity and life enrichment.

My mother was allowed to self-isolate, which I believe aided in her confusion, emotional, mental and physical decline; that I thought was the progression of dementia. I was wrong. In just 3 weeks at her new place, my mother is flourishing. She has made friends; she’s not complaining, angry, suspicious or anxious. She’s not nearly as confused. Her level of fitness has improved. She participates in several activities offered daily, including appropriate physical fitness. Because of the mental and emotional stimulation she is happier, she remembers the names of other residents. She changes her clothes and grooms herself because she has activities to go to daily. Because of the appropriate physical fitness, she has improved physically. This was my expectations of TM that she did not get. She is a totally different person at her new place, because of their level of care and involvement, than she was at TM.

While at TM, her room was next to an exterior door that led to a secure courtyard. This door was locked and alarmed. In winter, residents were not allowed outside, which makes sense, so the door stayed locked, but the alarm was not disconnected. Several times a day, residents would try to open the door setting off the alarm; and she’d have to listen to this alarm going off for 10 or more minutes multiple times a day before anyone responded. My mom used a Facebook Portal for us to communicate and I would hear this alarm going off. An alarm should be checked immediately, and my mom should not have to listen to this all day long. Why not disarm the alarm during winter months since the door stays locked? At one point I called the front desk from home, 25 minutes away, with my mom still on the Facebook Portal and asked the receptionist if someone could check and reset the alarm. I was still talking with my mom when it took another 5-7 minutes for the alarm to be reset. Two days later I was visiting, and that door was alarming again for no less than 10 minutes before someone checked and reset it. This was a daily occurrence.

On the last day I packed up my mother’s things, I went to leave and was having trouble with the new keypad. I wasn’t able to get it to work. I went to ask someone for help, but realized at that moment, there was no staff member available to help me. If there wasn’t anyone available to help ME, there wasn’t one available to help a resident either. Maybe that’s why the door alarms for so long before being checked and reset?

Also, TM steadily increased their prices. We started at just over 6K a month with a one month move in discount (for the first month in assisted living) to just under 9K in memory care in about 3 years! But my mother’s level of care never increased from day 1 in memory care. She is reasonably self-sufficient and spent almost 22 hours a day in her room. At almost 9K I just wasn’t seeing what she was paying for. That price should afford her a lot more than she got. I thought TM was the best there was (5-stars at the time) I was afraid if I moved her, it would be to some place that would cost less, but also offer less care. I was wrong. Though I never met an employee at TM that had a bad attitude or wasn’t pleasant, I am glad I moved my mother OUT of Touchmark’s memory care. There are better places out there for people that require memory care that offer mental, emotional stimulation, physical activity and life enrichment for far less $$ than TM. I found a place that offers all of that, so I moved my mother out...

Touchmark management is unwilling and unable to handle concerns correctly due to constant changes to management and chain of command.

These concerns directly affect the residents who live there and they fail to investigate properly when concerns are brought up. Many residents complain to care staff and those concerns are never followed up on even with proper documentation and proof of occurrence those people get a slap on the wrist and are kept to work and care for your families who live there.

Touchmark is huge on being the “best place in Vancouver” except almost everyday in my last month of working there. we were down anywhere from 1 to 4 caregivers leaving the environment understaffed and unsafe (they failed to acknowledge this and would compare it to other homes saying we were just fine)

However this understaffing they called “safe” led to:

-leaving residents to sit on call lights for over 20 minutes -Fall risk residents taking themselves or trying to care for themselves in the time it took us to arrive. -Residents normal routines being thrown off -Meals arriving later than normal -employees not getting proper breaks or rest time leading to tired and overworked care. -upset residents -little to no support -showers and care not being properly done or at all -those that are incontinent soaked because we couldn’t get to them in a timely manner

This is my own personal experience however in the past 6 months alone there turnover rate can certainly speak for itself.

They use intimidation to keep people there and allow others to bully people into doing things there way

This is not an environment you want to be in and sincerely do not recommend you to work or put your family member in this facility.

There is better facilities that are more oriented on care than the money they can get off you as well as more facilities that will care more about there employees, which are the main sources of care for your family and you want them...

I arrived to WA not knowing what condition my 102 year old Gma was in after a fall that left her on the floor alone for days. We were in crisis mode trying to determine & secure different levels of care dependent upon how and if she recovered. Heather rearranged her day, met with us first thing in the morning & provided us with a wealth of information about Touchmark as well as systems navigation for MediCare in this state. Heather was in communication with me several times a day, visited my Gma, brought smoothies, provided emotional support far beyond what her job description entails & kept in touch despite knowing my Gma was not going to be a match for Touchmark. Her compassion, dedication, organizational skills, and commitment towards aging people & their families is absolutely unparalleled. As an LCSW from CA, my experience with Heather has raised the bar, far exceeding any experience I have had both; professionally & personally. I truly hope ALL the Administrators are aware of her gift she brings forth in all of her communication with families she encounters. Heather is a rare person and I hope her value & work is appropriately valued. The word "asset" is a severe understatement, when talking about Heather. We are forever grateful for meeting her and look forward to...