Shaftesbury Park Retirement Residence

The Self and Family Managed Care Program at the Shaftesbury is rife with problems for the clients and the health care aids.The manager that was originally hired to run the Shaftesbury SFMC agency left in January 2023. The management decided to hire their nurse to fill the position and also hire an existing health care aid to be the staff scheduler.I suffered terribly as a result of this nurse’s unfamiliarity with running the agency. The nurse's lack of knowledge and experience became quite evident right from the start. In addition, the staff scheduler was not able to properly schedule the HCAs to attend to the clients as outlined in our care plans. I experienced many missed visits, or visits that were markedly delayed. When I contacted the scheduler to let her know what was happening, she did not take responsibility for her omission in delivering my care. Instead, she came up with all kinds of poor excuses for her errors. Another significant problem with this agency is that there is a constant turnover of caregivers. Whenever I got comfortable with my caregivers, they would quit working here. They were not happy with the unprofessional working environment that they were placed into. When the Shaftesbury SFMC agency first began, the caregivers were properly trained before working with a client. Now the new caregivers are not trained anymore. During my time with this agency, I had multiple new caregivers that told me: “ No one trained me or told me about your medical conditions.” The new HCA's often asked one of my family members for help as they did not know what to do on their own. My family and I had to train each new caregiver. This was exhausting for us. As a result of the constant turnover of HCA’s, the agency was always short staffed and the residents did not receive proper care. Some residents would miss a meal, others their medication or their assigned visits entirely.In the time that that I was in this SFMC program, I had over 50 caregivers. Due to no fault of their own, the HCA's were placed in a very perilous position as a result of the lack of information provided to them before working with a new client.The majority of my HCA’s were kind, caring and compassionate. I enjoyed the time I spent with them and appreciated all that they did for me.Many of them complained about how overworked they were and how they were booked to see three or four clients at the same time. It was impossible for them to be able to do what was expected. A few of the new caregivers did not know what was written on my care plan and refused to do essential tasks for me as a result. This caused me so much stress and I did not get the proper care that I was entitled to. In my opinion, the SFMC program at the Shaftesbury is filled with deficiencies. It is not up to par for a SFMC agency from what I have personally experienced and what other residents have shared with me about their experiences.Lucky for me I had family members here with me to witness what they put me through. Other families may still be in the dark as to what is going on behind the scenes. I would recommend getting a hidden camera to put in your loved ones' suites to confirm what I am telling you or better yet, stay away from this program all together and hire privately. We all deserve the very best care possible.