My mom moved into Clearwater Springs almost 4 years ago, on Halloween evening, 2018. She needed the help through out the day which we could not provide, and she wasn't able to do her favorite activity in the months she lived at my place, walk. At Clearwater she could walk as much as she was able to do. Outside when the weather cooperated, and inside when it didn't. She often joked that she was trying to wear out the carpet in the halls, and the staff always encouraged her to keep it up!
Mom go the assistance that she needed, and as her health deteriorated Clearwater worked with us to help meet her needs. Mom had memory issues, and although the don't provide memory care, they talked to me about what they could do and could not do, and luckily mom never progressed to the point that she had to move into memory care.
The big reason that we started looking at Clearwater Springs for mom was because she had a very small retirement, but had been able to take out a portion of her retirement in a lump sum. When we started looking, "A Place for Mom" helped us to understand that mom could get into assisted living, but needed a place that she could afford to get into now, and that would accept Medicaid in the future. Most places required 2 years of residents paying the regular costs, but Clearwater only required 1 year and they had an opening. That allowed us to help mom get in and then she was able to switch to Medicaid one year later. Clearwater also helped us to understand what we would need to do to transition mom to Medicaid, which we greatly appreciated.
The staff at Clearwater have been wonderful. Many of the faces changed over the time that mom lived there (she passed in August) but they were all very helpful!
Now I don't want to make it sound like mom had no complaints. She had a few, especially once she got to where she needed help standing up. They did everything that I think they could have done to try to help mom remember to just pull one of the emergency cords, but with her memory condition she didn't remember. And when she was uncomfortable she was very impatient. But when we would talk about it, and about what the options were, she would always decide that she wanted to stay at Clearwater. (She just wouldn't remember that she had made that decision the next day. :-)
When mom had her stroke in July and we were arranging for Hospice is when Clearwater shined! They helped me work with the hospice providers so that mom could come back to her room for what turned out to be her final week. And it was such a privilege to be there. Mom wasn't conscious, but I got to see how much the staff and the other residents loved mom as they came to pay their respects and visit. It filled my heart! And the staff bent over backwards to help make sure we were comfortable as we were with mom during this time. What a wonderful, tender mercy!
I think the best thing I can say, is that if we had it all to do over again, I think we would do it the same. I was going to say that I think mom would have wanted to move directly there instead of in with us. But in thinking that through, I think both she and I would always want to try to have her live with us, but after we realized all of the challenges, I am sure she and I would then choose Clearwater Springs, every time!!!
I'm very pleased with Clearwater springs Mary and Chastity have been nothing but attentive to our needs.
There's always going to be quirks wherever you go especially in situations like this, but I must say after experiencing other places this far is more a community than any other I've seen.
Activities are available to the residence. They even went on an outing fishing!
The food is not half bad I must say I've eaten here. There's a cook there, I'm not sure what her name is she's a redhead when she works it's very good.
I also would like to recognize Kristen she drives the tenants to their appointments and outings and she is the utmost patient and kind helpful person I have ever met. Also there is Brendan he is an asset to the community he has always been willing to fix and help with anything. Kudos to the staff most of them are very attentive and caring.. I have not met them all.....thank you again to all of you we are very pleased and appreciated you all.
