Boztopia.com

When it comes to telling a story that you want people to understand and connect to, nothing beats hearing the words of other people. I can pontificate, theorize, and analyze all I want, but to simply read the stories of people who are in the trenches, being affected by the issue, drives the point home.

In the case of the ongoing campaign to force Lazard CEO Bruce Wasserstein to clean up the conditions and improve the standards of the Atria assisted living chain, I wanted to take a moment and share some more stories from people affected every day by the decisions Wasserstein is making…everyday people like you and I who are in tough spots and being forced to make tougher decisions because of Wasserstein’s greed. Read on.

“Not long after she became a resident, mom and I began to notice many problems with her level of care. They didn’t have enough staff to do even the one check that was part of her care plan. The short staffing was apparent in other areas. Crucial doctor’s appointments were cancelled without notice because there wasn’t a driver. Showers were not routine. Even after constant requests, too few staff were available to keep up with the requests.”

– Susan MacArevey, daughter of a former Atria Shaker resident, Albany, New York

“My mother has been a resident at Atria Marina Place for almost two years. She pays $4,825 for a one bedroom apartment. Our contract with Atria is supposed to include assistance with daily care and monitoring of medications, but my mother is still paying an additional $400 for care and medication administration. In the two years my mother has been at Atria, there’s been a huge turnover in staff. I think only about five of the original aides are sill there from when mom moved in. It also seems like there is never enough staff to watch out for the residents—at night there are two aides in the entire building.”

– Huguette McHugh, daughter of an Atria Marina Place resident, Quincy, Mass.

“I was told that I would have to start supervising the night nursing staff. I do not have any clinical background experience, I did not hire the staff that I was supposed to supervise, this would take my focus away from the successful program I’d developed to take care of the residents. In addition, I was working full time nine to five. But I was told that I should stop by unannounced at any hour during the overnight shift to see how the night nursing staff was doing. I feel this was the result of Atria’s corporate mentality. From my perspective as an employee, it always seemed like Atria put profits before people.”

– Kathryn Kuhn, Former Life Guidance Director for Alzheimer’s patients at Atria Kew Gardens, Queens, New York

“It’s time the state holds these facilities accountable. Before my mother moved in, Atria promised the best food and plenty of caregiving staff. We had high expectations, but I feel like we’ve been deceived every step of the way.”

– Robin Berson, daughter of an Atria Riverdale resident, Bronx, New York

What is so often forgotten in this new Gilded Age is that every zero on that balance sheet represents a person, a real, living, thinking being with feelings, who can be affected by decisions made in towering offices far, far away.  It’s bad enough when it happens to anyone, but to treat our elders like this–as less than human, disposable entities who exist only to provide a revenue stream–is unacceptable.  And to treat the people who spend their time and effort caring for them as disposable is equally unacceptable.

This post was sponsored in part by the Campaign To Improve Assisted Living. Read more about Lazard, Atria, and the campaign here and here.