01/18/2024
Here's a message I sent to A Place For Mom. It was rejected. I guess they don't want negative reviews.
I was placed in the American House in West Bloomfield, MI by the guardianship/conservatorship my son placed me in. Very few people are happy with having been placed here, in their cases, by family members. Within 72 hours one of my two cats was dead, I had no bed to sleep on, so I used sheets with some blankets for a month before a 5" thick mattress arrived, which I slept on for another month before the box spring arrived. I then became ill and was diagnosed with COVID, which could only have been contracted via the New Year's Day entertainment - three very loud young women singing and dancing with residents packed in the room, most of whom did not like what they were being entertained by. I then had to quarantine and was screamed at by other residents when I followed staff instructions to get my dinner. I then had to demand food by banging on my door as I was told to stay inside my apartment. After six days inside three rooms I was then allowed to come out with the hospital-grade mask I'd been wearing when screamed at. Several more days saw me fighting just to be fed and finally yesterday I was allowed in the dining area where I have to sit alone at a table while wearing my mask. Many of my personal belongings are in three separate areas while I have no car and am getting no help from the guardianship to regain my belongings. Today we had entertainment from the same young women, this time attempting to be comedians. Again there was an age and cultural difference making their show far less funny than they thought they were being. I would guess that most of us don't know what chick peas are. Weekly shopping trips are also nearly impossible to book, so if the food offered is too difficult to eat (which it often is) there is no other way short of ordering online to get food to fill this gap. I'm living on a trust and it is increasingly difficult to get the extra funds I need for myself and my cat. To say that living here is a misery is raising the definition of misery beyond any recognizable concept. I've told anyone outside of here - at the hospital anyway as it's the only place I've been for the past month - to not do this to a relative. Do not put them in a place like this. Everyone of any level of normal cognitive abilities hates this place or has painfully accepted their fate, knowing that family members who placed them here did so in order to have them out of their lives. Every day is the same routine which also adds to the sense of being in an episode of the Twilight Zone as stories and dashed dreams are repeated each day until it's time to go to bed - usually no later than 9 pm - like good little children. I hope a lot of people will read this and that they will not ruthlessly stash unwanted relatives in a place they can tell themselves is just so wonderful as I also hope everything I've said will reach people's conscience before deciding to place a loved one here as it's a clean, somewhat well ordered snake pit.
