Whether you were visiting a loved one or researching senior living options for yourself, your experience in a senior living community did not meet your expectations. Your first reaction might be to leave a nasty online review, tell all of your friends, or find a new place for your loved one. However, if your goal is to improve the quality of that particular independent living, assisted living, or memory care facility, that might not be the most effective way to enact a positive change. From misbehaving employees to poor environmental issues, the best way to solve problems that you perceive is to take your concerns to someone with the power to do something about it. That means talking directly to the senior living community's leadership.
It’s Not Awkward
It's perfectly natural to want to stay quiet, maybe you don't want to hurt feelings or "stir the pot." However, stop worrying about offending anyone and instead think about the good that could come out of you speaking out. Senior living is a complex, person and personnel based industry that thrives off of constructive feedback and addressing problems as they arise. The leadership in senior living communities have thick skin and address complaints (valid or not) all the time. You won't hurt feelings, and good leaders won't get defensive. It might be easier to hide behind a keyboard, but sometimes community leaders don't see every review. It's better to ensure they know about the problem so that they can resolve it in a timely manner.
Time-Sensitive Concerns
Community leadership can't do anything differently if they don't know a problem exists. In senior living, resident safety is of the utmost priority. If your concern or complaint is about residents safety, such as poor employee behavior or an environmental hazard, it is imperative that you notify a person in power immediately. Although regulatory agencies periodically inspect communities for safety, in-between visits, it is up to staff, residents, and observant visitors to point out short-comings that might endanger residents' welfare.
Ensure Follow-Up
Once you have handed your concern over to community leadership, they should implement a plan of correction. This should not only identify the problem but also involve corrective actions and steps to prevent the problem from occurring in the future. A leader performing due diligence will contact you with all of the corrective actions. While you certainly don't have to follow-up, if you don't hear back, it could be a sign of poor leadership in the community. It would be wise to ensure your concerns were taken seriously, especially if a loved one is still in the community's care.
When to Be Truly Concerned
Not having your complaint addressed at all is a more significant cause for concern. At the very least you should receive an explanation for the issue, and if needed the steps for resolution. While there are certainly instances or problems that are one-off occurrences that the community has no control over, leadership doing their jobs will still communicate well with you until you have reached a satisfactory resolution. A community that doesn't communicate back or completely ignores concerns from visitors, residents, and family members is a big, red flag. If that is the case, you may need to notify the community's parent company or a regulatory agency to help force a community into compliance.
End Goal
At the end of the day, most senior living communities appreciate any and all feedback from visitors, residents, and staff. Some of the most innovative programs and community improvements come from someone standing up and pointing out a problem - or as many issues should be seen - an opportunity. You could be the catalyst for change that helps residents in a community live a better, more fulfilling life. So, don't hold back and share your thoughts!
Senior living is an ever-changing industry with lots of different people, diverse roles, and immense responsibility. Turn negatives into positives by speaking out and telling community leadership the things they need to hear to create the best community possible.