Policies and licensing
The rules of a home tell you more about it than its photographs do. This page sets out who we can care for, who we cannot, and how decisions get made once somebody has moved in.
Some of it is not comfortable reading. We would rather you knew our limits before a move than discovered them afterwards.
Licensing
Licensing is the first thing worth checking about any memory care home, and it should be easy to check.
Both houses are licensed by the Minnesota Department of Health as Assisted Living Facilities with Dementia Care. Sursum Corda in Minnetonka is HFID 30827; Gladys’ Place in Plymouth is HFID 30018. You can confirm either one yourself in the Department’s Health Care Provider Directory — search by the house name or the HFID.
Ask us for the current license documents for either house and we will give them to you. Ask every home you visit for the same thing, and be wary of one that hesitates.
Who we can care for
Admission to either house requires a diagnosis of some form of dementia. That is not a preference. It is what these homes are set up to do, and somebody without that diagnosis would be poorly served here.
We care for people living with Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body dementia, Parkinson's disease and frontotemporal dementia.
Care continues through every stage, including the end of life. Nobody has to move on because their dementia has advanced.
Who we are not the right home for
We are not able to care for everyone, and our admission policy says so plainly. It names severe behaviors that we are not equipped to manage safely, and it is far better for a family to hear that before a move than after one.
If we do not believe we can care for your father well, we will say so rather than accept him and struggle. Being turned down by a home that is honest about its limits is a better outcome than being accepted by one that is not.
Restraints and medication
We do not believe in using restraints at Gianna Homes.
We also do not believe in using medications to control behavior. Distress in dementia is usually communication, and the first response to it should be a person, not a dose. Medications are monitored by a registered nurse.
If you are comparing homes, put both of those questions to each of them directly, and listen to how quickly the answer arrives.
How care decisions get made
Care is reviewed with the family at a care conference at least every six months, and more often for families who ask for one. You do not have to wait for a scheduled meeting to raise something.
It is worth asking any home how often families are brought into decisions, and whether that happens on a schedule or only after something has gone wrong.
As things get worse, and at the end
Care continues through the end of life, and hospice care is provided when it is needed, in the house the person already knows rather than by a move to somewhere unfamiliar at the worst possible time.
There are still circumstances in which a stay ends: a medical condition we cannot safely manage, or a safety risk we cannot resolve. Our policies set these out, and we would rather you read them now than meet them later.