HUMBLE – Dozens of people who live at Autumn Grove Cottage facilities, who suffer from various levels of memory loss, just learned they have to be out of their facility by Friday.
“I live 10 minutes from here, and this is perfect. I could come bring my dog and visit my husband,” said Claudia Simon whose husband, Al Simon, lives at the facility located in Humble.
She said her husband is in the final stages of dementia. She was relieved to find Autumn Grove Cottage in Humble where she said he had been living amongst a great staff for the past several months.
“I had been through two other places with him. This place was so perfect,” Simon said.
But now, there’s a major problem.
“They notified us yesterday afternoon about 2 p.m. that our family members had to be out of here by Friday,” Simon said.
She added that she got no explanation as to why all other Autumn Grove Cottage locations are also voluntarily closing.
“They are generally required to give a 30-day notice for those things, and this is the first voluntary closure that I’m familiar with in an assisted living that has happened so rapidly,” said Greg Shelley, who is the managing local ombudsman for the Harris County Long-Term Care Ombudsman program at Cizik School of Nursing at UT Health Houston.
Shelley’s job is to advocate for assisted living facility residents and help them resolve issues. He said there are options for soon-to-be displaced residents and the information is free.
“The Ombudsman program is trying to reach out to the families and the residents to see if we could help guide them in making choices or at least letting them know about similar facilities in the area that might be available,” Shelley said.
Information that may prove necessary in the coming days as dozens of families throughout our area are now forced to uproot loved ones in need of special care.
“Yea it’s hard on all of us,” Simon said.
Retirement Center Management, which oversees Autumn Grove Cottage, released the following statement:
“Autumn Grove Cottage senior living communities will be permanently closing business as a result of the extreme economic and employment conditions created by the Covid pandemic.
Houston-based Retirement Center Management (RCM), the third-party operating company for Autumn Grove Cottages, is working closely with the community owners and all families to ensure a smooth transition to other licensed Assisted Living Memory Care communities. RCM is committed to serving residents and their families until all have been appropriately relocated to their new senior living community. RCM is coordinating the moves to minimize any inconvenience this transition will cause and is offering immediate availability at nearby RCM managed communities that offer memory care services.
Autumn Grove Cottages will continue to operate, and services will not cease until every resident has successfully transitioned to their new community.
RCM operates over 20 senior living communities throughout the greater Houston area and is looking forward to continuing to provide the same level of service to Autumn Grove Cottage residents as they transition to their new home.”
Information for the local Ombudsman program:
Center for Nursing Research | Harris County Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program
6901 Bertner Ave | Suite 624 | Houston, TX 77030
713-500-9930 tel | 713-500-0256 fax https://nursing.uth.edu/coa/ombudsman/
Other information about placing patients can be found here.
