Golden Acres Living and Rehabilitation

If you care about your loved one’s safety and well-being, please think carefully before placing them at Golden Acres!! My father entered this facility for rehabilitation at a cost of approximately $4,200 for 20 days! His experience was horrific, and he left in significantly worse physical and mental condition than when he arrived. My father has taken psychiatric medication since he was 12 years old because of severe childhood trauma and serious, documented mental-health conditions. Despite receiving discharge instructions from the hospital, this facility failed to provide his psychiatric medication for more than three weeks! Staff then contacted my elderly mother and said they intended to discharge him because of his behavior!!! We were stunned. How can a facility stop a lifelong psychiatric medication, fail to address the consequences, and then blame and discharge the patient for his behavior? My sister went to the facility to investigate; staff proudly confirmed that they planned to discharge him. She explained that our father had serious psychiatric diagnoses and depended on medication he had taken for most of his life. She asked whether anyone had reviewed his chart or hospital discharge instructions, and she had a staff member read the records aloud. This conversation was recorded. Only THEN did staff appear to recognize that his diagnoses and medication requirements were CLEARLY documented in the records AVAILABLE to them. A staff member reacted as though they had been unaware of his bipolar and schizophrenia-related condition. After my sister brought this DIRECTLY to their attention, staff began backtracking and said they needed to pause and reassess the discharge?! This raises an alarming question: Why was Golden Acres prepared to discharge a vulnerable patient for behavior that was caused or worsened by the facility’s own apparent failure to provide his prescribed medication? During his nightmare stay, my father was also frequently left alone in his room. His catheter bags were allowed to become so full that they overflowed, leaving urine on the floor of his room. He had to be moved to a different room after ants were found in his bed. His bed was positioned so that his back faced the doorway and his face was toward the wall, preventing him from seeing staff passing by or entering. There was no phone in his room. Our family repeatedly contacted the facility about his medication, behavior, and care, but our calls often went unanswered or were not returned. When Golden Acres picked him up from the hospital, his discharge instructions required a pureed diet and specific swallowing precautions in line with all the medications he takes. My father has serious swallowing difficulties and is at high risk of aspiration. After he began declining at Golden Acres, they sent him to a different hospital from the one that had discharged him to their facility. Those critical dietary and swallowing instructions were not properly communicated, because the hospital began serving him regular meals that he could not safely swallow. This placed him at risk of aspiration and potentially life-threatening complications. Our family trusted Golden Acres to rehabilitate and care for my father. Instead, he was neglected, isolated, and returned to our family in worse condition. We intend to continue pursuing this matter through the appropriate channels Staff may sound friendly and reassuring on the phone, but their actions did not reflect the level of care our family was promised. My father declined both physically and mentally while at Golden Acres. I have filed a formal complaint with Texas Health and Human Services. In our experience, this facility’s failures involving medication management, swallowing precautions, sanitation, supervision, discharge planning, and communication created serious and life-threatening risks. Please think very carefully before placing someone you love in this facility! It has been a very terrible experience. My father is now home on hospice