What a nightmare experience, from start to finish. Pauline could really do with some training in not only customer relations, but actually understanding the elderly. My Grandmother was rushed into placing my Grandfather here for Respite- all the rush came from Pauline, despite my Grandmother repeatedly saying it was all moving to fast. When she expressed this concern to Pauline, she was told "Oh well I've started this now so I'm going to finish it" or something to that effect. My Grandmother was also asked to sign things she did not understand, which lead to direct debits being taken from her bank account for services we are still not sure even happened or were necessary. On the day my Grandfather arrived, he was placed in his room with my Mother, and then left. No tour, no offer of tea or coffee, no welcome from the staff. Just left for over an hour to figure it out themselves. Nobody came to help him unpack or settle in either. At every visit the staff seemed just to busy to care- and often yelled across the room to residents who were calling out. It was an incredibly loud environment. The staff also repeatedly called my Grandmother which stressed her out immensely- hardly the respite she needed. And then following an incident, it just got worse. There was an incident on a Sunday evening where my Grandfather lashed out at staff- I want to be clear that I do not condone his behaviour. It is however not normal behaviour for him. Staff called my Grandmother and stressed her out not only by telling her about it , but by telling her there would be a meeting tomorrow (Monday) and providing no further information. They let her stew on this all night. I live 3 hours away and got up very early to be in Wangaratta by 9am to support her for this meeting. A meeting that in the end, was never called. I had to contact Pauline myself to ask what had happened and how we could move forward. When I finally got hold of her, she briefly told me what happened then told me I had to contact someone else because "I am at another location today". Her whole attitude implied she could not have cared less. Thankfully, Tash was amazing to deal with and together we made a plan. However, it was at this point (which was day 4 or 5) that I was told they had no Behaviour Plan and no written strategies for him. I was unimpressed to find out it had gone on this many days without anyone from St Johns reaching out to us to ask for this plan, or information to fill it out. Instead, just repeated calls to my Grandmother expecting her to calm him down. T Once Tash and I had discussed the plan and I had explained the ways we calm him at home, there was no further incidents and his visit settled. We also received repeated calls from another resident who had somehow gotten hold of my Grandmothers number. ash had also changed his notes to ask that nobody call my Grandmother and to instead call my mother or myself, however the staff continued to ignore this request. All in all, it felt like a disorganised, chaotic mess that caused more stress than anything else. We will definitely be seeking alternate arrangements in future. Edit: This has now been submitted to the Aged Care Complaints Scheme. St Johns response here is the only response we have gotten so far to countless emails and attempts to call.
