Grace Manor Port OrangeI had a fifty-eight minute phone call with Jessica Butler and Janice Stovall 1 at Grace Manor Port Orange. Jessica told me that both Marilyn and Connie Wade from the Halifax Hospital Psychiatric Unit had called her and told her that mom could be discharged tomorrow (March 6, 2012). 2 Jessica said that Janice Stovall is her director at Grace Manor, which is on Dunlawton in Port Orange, and that they have both visited my mother at Halifax and think she would do well at their facility. (Jessica also said that Marilyn had called Ms. Stovall on Friday, March 2nd.)

At this point Jessica handed the phone to Janice and we spoke for the rest of the call. Here are the notes I took:

  • said they have Skype, etc. & “senior computers”
  • she’s from Tennessee, been living in Florida for 5 years
  • was previously at Windsor in Palm Coast; had 54 beds there
  • security cameras, motion sensors
  • Harry in admissions 3 showed her to “mom” 4
  • EverCare, Tango, American Elder Care 5
  • Dept. of Children & Families – State of Florida
  • one side assisted, one side dementia / memory care
  • $2895 – $3495 / mo vs. $3895

1 I learned later that her name is spelled Janis.
2 She wouldn’t actually be discharged until the 13th.
3 at Halifax
4 I put this in quotes even in my notes because I did not believe she had really been introduced to my mother at Halifax; Janis told me that mom kept pestering her for a cigarette and to take her outside to smoke, and she wanted me to know that smoking was not allowed at Grace Manor. I explained repeatedly that there was no way she had been talking to my mother, because mom hates smoking. I was right, of course.
5 These are the different state insurance companies — if I understood her correctly — that deal with nursing homes and assisted living in Florida.