Dear Sonida,
I am writing this letter as my mother's power…read moreof attorney and healthcare proxy. I regret to inform you that I have deep concerns regarding my mother's care at The Amberleigh in Williamsville, New York. My mother was an independent living resident at The Amberleigh for a few years until she moved into an assisted living apartment on September 1, 2025. Prior to moving into the assisted living apartment, she received care from an independent contractor to the extent that she needed medication reminders due to memory issues from Alzheimer's, and, as time progressed, she needed help with showering and grooming as well. The additional level of help she was receiving is what led her family to the conclusion that she would be more appropriately served in an assisted living environment.
However, the transition from one level was very awkward and lacked professionalism, and representatives at The Amberleigh did not follow appropriate intake procedure and ignored some state guidelines in the process. They even overcharged my mother for rent, and I had to take steps to recover the money. Since the move, my mother has not received the appropriate level of care to meet her needs and administrators at The Amberleigh have not made an adjustment to her care or even performed a follow-up assessment to evaluate her needs in the first place.
To avoid writing a novel to explain events over time, I am simply going to list the primary points of my concerns and the concerns of my mother's family.
1. Management at The Amberleigh presented my mother with a contract for her apartment and accommodations in assisted living without first passing that contract along to me (her POA), or either of her two other sons, or her sister (her other healthcare proxy) in spite of the fact they new she had Alzheimer's (the entire reason we moved her to The Amberleigh in the first place was due to her Alzheimer's condition). She was not and is not in a state of mind where she can make these contract-related decisions. To be blunt, your managers at The Amberleigh had a cognitively impaired person sign off on a contract without representation present at the time of signing and without consulting any representation prior to that signing.
2. The Amberleigh did not obtain a written evaluation from my mother's physician as to the specifics of her health 30 days prior to admitting her to assisted living, and they have not obtained one since, which is what NYS regulations require.
3. The Amberleigh did not meet with family members prior to her move into assisted living to discuss my mother's health status and care needs.
4. The Director of Wellness, Michele Cinquino, did not perform a formal assessment of my mother until after she had already moved into her new apartment in assisted living.
a. Neither I nor my Aunt, nor any other family member, signed off on the assessment because it was significantly inaccurate, and we asked for another, and the subsequent document presented to us was almost unchanged and still highly inaccurate.
b. Michele has not followed up with our subsequent requests for a more accurate evaluation, and she has failed to produce the standard post-intake six-month follow-up evaluation (another violation of NYS regulations).
c. My mother will have lived at The Amberleigh for a year at the end of this month without a subsequent formal assessment, and I never signed off on the first one.
d. Formal requests through email for a follow-up assessment go unanswered and, consequently, my mother is living according to assisted living standards when she clearly needs enhanced assisted living care, but The Amberleigh will not address this issue.
i. She is not receiving help with showering or grooming.
ii. She is not receiving help with dressing.
iii. She is not receiving help with toileting.
iv. She is not receiving appropriate medical assistance consistently, even when The Amberleigh receives a script from my mother's physicians.
v. When she is physically ill or requires medical attention, The Amberleigh does not contact family members, and we have found her on multiple occasions to be in need of immediate medical attention.
5. As a result of the poor care my mother has received, over the last several months the family has been pursuing other options at other institutions, and the administration at The Amberleigh has been less than helpful.
6. The Amberleigh has failed to respond to half a dozen attempts at contact by phone, email, and in writing by my mother's long-term care insurance company to connect to a claim and set up a payment plan.
a. Consequently, my mother is paying for her stay at The Amberleigh out of her pocket, instead of through her long-term care provider.
b. This is costing my mother and our family thousands of unnecessary dollars every single month.
For all the reasons I have stated above, I am compelled to say that I have found The Amberleigh to be an ongoing nightmare for our family.
