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• May 2020

• Assisted Living of Mesa is not the typical group home!  Before I visited this home, I was sure that the type of loving, professionally-run home I so needed for my mom did not exist!  I toured more group homes than I can count; typically leaving in tears considering the type of ‘existence’ my mom would have there.  As a school administrator with high standards,  I expected equally high standards from other professions; my expectations were truly always shot down when I visited group homes in the Phoenix area. I began to think the ‘best’ was just very below-average and felt despair in considering leaving my dear mother in any of them.

• But… when I stepped inside the Assisted Living of Mesa, I immediately felt a difference- a huge difference.  At the other homes I had visited, I always had the sense that the caregivers were putting on a happy face for visitors but somehow sensed that when the door closed, things were not so happy.  I was negative about the whole group home concept and was distraught over how I could take care of my mother.  The caregivers have a really hard job, I know, but I can’t compromise my mom’s safety and care.

•             But… when walked into the Assisted Living of Mesa, I could not continue with that negative feeling. I immediately felt that the employees were committed to making the group home a HOME for everyone who visited or lived there!  There was such a genuine feeling that permeated every aspect of the tour.  I immediately sensed that my dear mom, who has dementia and cannot really advocate for herself, would be loved, cared for and about, and not left alone. I knew, on that initial tour, that I could go to work each day knowing that she was loved, helped, taken care of, supported, and considered part of a family.  Now, Mom has been at the Assisted Living of Mesa for almost three years.  They love her there, meet her needs for dementia care, and I have never worried or wondered about how she is treated.  I have to work; I also have to care for my mom who cared for me for so long.  This group home is not the typical group home!

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Suzanne  W.