The Woodmark at Uptown

The Woodmark was referred to me by a friend who had a great experience with both of his parents, one in Assisted Living area and one in Memory care. I visited numerous memory care facilities before I choose The Woodmark for my 87 year old Mother with Alzheimers. They have two different units of memory care. Those that can still live in an apartment setting and those that need a higher level of care. The higher level of care units are all companion suites. The room is divided by a wall for privacy. The great thing about The Woodmark is that their price is "all inclusive" which means they do not have a base price for room and board and then tack on additional fees for care. Your loved one gets all the care that they need for the reasonable price they give to you....just add tax. I found the facilities that utilizes a room and board base price + care, ambiguous. Their assessment on the level of care your loved one needs at a given time could potentially add hundreds if not thousands of dollars to their base price making it necessary to move your loved one as their care needs exceeds their budget. Seriously concerning. Mom has been in her apartment for a couple of weeks now and I am currently VERY happy with the facility and the care she is receiving. The Woodmark has a 1:8 ratio in their memory care, much better than the State mandate of 1:15. I have found the caregivers to be very sweet and patient with my Mom as she transitions into her new home. They come to her apartment to get her for all meals and all activities and ensure she gets back home without getting lost. They check on her every 2 hours. I have a camera in her bedroom so I can keep an eye and an ear on her. Some facilities I visited didn't allow cameras and that was an immediate red flag for me. The current staff at The Woodmark have all been super friendly, they keep all areas of the facility clean including the apartment and the place always smells good. I visited some highly recommended facilities that were dirty, run down and smelly. Ugh! There were two negatives I found with this facility but still moved my Mom in because the pros outweighed the cons. 1) the memory care floor with apartment living does not have a community living room where residents gather between activities to socialize and watch TV like most other facilities have. They have one multipurpose room they use for dining and activities and it is not set up with couches or recliners that would make it a nice social gathering place. Residents are mostly in their apartments if not dining or participating in a scheduled activity. 2) No access to an outside courtyard. This is a real shame but this building is not set up to where the residents in memory care can get fresh air like most other facilities. They can only go outside when a caregiver or family member takes them. This is something to consider if you don't live in ABQ. I do so I don't have to rely solely on the caregivers to get her outside and some vitamin D. With that being said, I have received pics of my Mom outside with the others doing activities she is obviously enjoying. Another goid thing about The Woodmark is that they have kept her busy with daily activities that keep her stimulated and having fun. As she doesn't remember doing the activities, the Staff makes sure to send me pictures of her participating and enjoying life at The Woodmark. I know this review is long but when I was researching facilities, I really appreciated internal honest feedback to help me make my super important decion for my Mama. Everyone's needs are different, I hope this early stage review is helpful. I will continue to provide feedback. Wishing you all success on your very important search! (Picture of my Mom's bedroom in her apartment. The bedroom is small but much bigger than some I saw. We are still decorating the living room so didn't include any pis here. This is a pic before she moved in of her closet and bathroom, which are both a comfortable size.)

Julie was very personable and spent a lot of time answering our questions. Definetly one of our picks.

Lindo lugar

Everyone treats me well when I visit my husband Donald. He is safe.

My Mom was in the Woodmark memory care unit or the SPA as they call it, for several years. Overall they took excellent care of my Mom. There was only one time in all these years where she was in her room when I came to visit. Otherwise she was always out and about with the other residents. This is true for all residents. The staff does an excellent job at keeping them up and doing activities. Maria was an amazing staff who was promoted and now works somewhere else at Woodmark. Thank you Maria. Thank you to all the great staff there that have taken care of my Mom over the years. The place is always kept very clean. My Mom's room was always clean and her room straightened. No funky smells almost always. No place is perfect though. There is a lot of turnover in leadership. There have been about four memory care directors in the past few years. This business is very tough though. It's emotional for the families and staff. We're all human not machines. Many items like clothes go missing or make it around to other residents. It's hard to keep track and name tags wear off. So lessons learned you must remove all valuables from your loved ones before they enter or they will just disappear. Not that there is a huge theft problem, but it's the nature of how memory care works. It's an interesting phenomenon. Prices have risen dramatically over the past couple of years. I'd say about 30%. There was a big leadership change across the board recently and prices went up by 15-20%. But this industry is very expensive. They provide services that families can't or don't want to do. That's just the way it is. Ok I have one major complaint. The Woodmark doctor assigned to memory care was never ever available. He was NEVER reachable and would NEVER call you back. He would prescribe medications without notifying the family. Not sure if he even still is the doctor there. Obviously this guy was just making a fast buck while spending little time engaging with families. Thanks Dr. C. If you are reading this review, then I'm sorry that you are probably dealing with someone with dementia. It will be a rough road. But try to make the best out of it. Do your best to look out for your loved one, that's all you can do. But overall you can trust the Woodmark to provide a high level of care. Good luck.