Melanie Atkins
Apr 2026
My grandpa lived at Avista in 2022, but it was called Syringa Place at the time. Some staff there were very nice and I am grateful they allowed him to come for a time when we first needed a place-However, if your family member has dementia of any kind, I would recommend going elsewhere. The staff must not have been trained to de-escalate paranoia or anxiety that came about as part of his dementia. On one occasion, they called the police when my grandfather was acting agitated and paranoid, though he had not hurt anyone. Once they informed me of this, I asked if they had tried to call his hospice first, who would have given him Ativan and helped him take other needed medications that he'd refused (due to paranoia and hallucinations caused by his dementia). We and hospice had clearly requested they do so if my grandpa ever refused to take his meds, because of his distrust of staff and his trust of the hospice workers, who listened to him.<br>No one had called hospice. Not before or after they called the police. Later, his hospice worker was shocked at the behavior of the management at Avista, who escalated his anxiety rather than following the plan to treat his anxiety. There were other occasions similar to this one. The Lewy Body dementia and dementia from Parkinson's were hard enough without people treating him like a criminal instead of a patient who needed help. Some staff warned me it would not get much better elsewhere, but that proved to be very false.<br><br>Once he moved to a small memory care (which happened to be less than half the price of Avista incidentally), though he still had dementia and all its complications as he declined, his situation improved significantly. Staff were much more reassuring elsewhere and his paranoia decreased as his anxiety was treated consistently and he was spoken to reassuringly.<br><br>At Avista, several times I came and could tell he'd not been bathed, or changed clothes for multiple days. Also, though I would notify staff to please not let his catheter bag get that full to help prevent more UTIs, I would empty it myself on multiple occasions, coming and finding it above the level recommended by the urologist again and again. Despite the high cost there, which included transportation to doctor appointments in a van for my grandpa's wheelchair, the staff providing transport acted very annoyed when I'd try to arrange it, and that was even with me meeting them at the appointment when I could. I did my best to communicate kindly, but I wondered how they acted with patients without family advocates accompanying them. I know that work must be extremely difficult and exhausting, but I want to share my perspective of how some of it came across to my family.<br><br>When it was called Syringa Place, it was owned by the same company "Enlivant" that owned Pomerelle Place in Burley. Looks like both have different owners now. But I have heard a recent experience of someone who had family in Pomerelle Place and it sounded similar to our experience at Syringa in 2022 (now called Avista). Both are very clean and fancy in the common areas, and have very good food and lighting and space, but I would describe them primarily as overpriced. For me, it is more important to find somewhere near to family who can advocate for a loved one who needs to reside at a facility, and to find a place as small as possible for their needs where your loved one doesn't "fall through the cracks" so to speak. A place that has staff who are trained to be caring towards people dealing with the strains of dementia, and that was not Syringa Place at all in my experience.
