Overall sentiment: Reviews for Charter Senior Living of Annapolis are strongly polarized but lean toward positive for families seeking a specialized memory-care setting. The dominant positive thread is that Charter operates as a memory-care-only community with a dementia-focused environment, a layout designed for people with Alzheimer’s and related dementias, and many staff members who are described as compassionate, attentive, and knowledgeable. Multiple reviewers praised the facility’s homelike, updated decor, courtyard and walking areas, cottage kitchens, furnished rooms, and features such as multiple sitting rooms, media spaces, and family-inservice programs. Dining and social life receive frequent praise—residents and families often mention an involved dining director or chef, tasty meals, treats like banana bread and cookies, and a busy activities calendar with high resident participation.
Care quality and staffing: A large share of reviews highlight devoted nursing and caregiving teams, positive admissions experiences, and smooth transitions—many families reported that the executive director, care coordinators, and specific staff members were helpful, communicative, and hands-on. The community is repeatedly recommended for late-stage dementia and even for more challenging/aggressive residents that other communities declined. Conversely, a recurring and serious negative theme is chronic understaffing (particularly nights), high staff turnover, and variable on-the-floor competency. Several families reported undertrained CNAs/med techs, inconsistent medication administration (including serious delays in pain medication), inadequate toileting assistance, dehydration, UTIs, and even hospitalizations attributed by families to staffing gaps or missed care. While some reviewers note that management changes improved conditions, others recount episodes of no licensed staff onsite, only two CNAs working a shift, or clinicians blaming one another—issues that materially affect perceived safety.
Facilities, environment, and programming: The physical environment receives repeated compliments: clean, renovated spaces, dementia-friendly layout (privacy-first quadrants, long walking corridors), secured and pleasant outdoor areas, and welcoming common rooms. The community’s programming is described as robust—SPARK meetings, themed monthly activities, volunteer events, family parties, pet interactions, and resident-driven projects all appear often in positive comments. Many families report their relatives are happier, more socially engaged, and better nourished after moving in. The onsite availability of hospice and doctor visits, plus family support groups and education sessions, are notable strengths that many reviewers emphasized.
Dining and daily life: Dining is frequently cited as a strong point—multiple reviewers praised the head chef, food variety and presentation, and the community’s effort to accommodate resident preferences. Several mentions of friendly reception, small welcoming touches (coffee/snacks for visitors), and individualized meal attention were common. A smaller number of reviewers, however, noted inconsistent food quality or unhappiness with meals, suggesting variability depending on staffing or meal times.
Management and communication: Experiences with leadership are mixed but important to call out. Some reviews name executive directors and care coordinators as highly effective, hands-on, and responsive; others cite poor communication, unprofessional staff behavior, and management that seemed unaware or dismissive during critical incidents. Several reviews document improvement following a change in management, implying that leadership turnover or changes have had a measurable impact on day-to-day care. Cost and contracting concerns appear in several comments (high fees, entrance-fee holds, extra charges for private night care), and some families felt surprised by added costs or by assurances that later proved inaccurate.
Safety, incidents, and red flags: While many families reported safe, healing, and attentive care, several reviews describe severe lapses: missed or delayed medications (including an instance of morphine not administered for eight hours), residents left alone for long periods, toileting failures leading to incontinence and skin risks, dehydration and UTIs, and hospital transfers. There are also discrete maintenance/cleanliness complaints (a burn pile in a common area, rooms not cleaned) and reports of caregivers being on phones or disengaged. These reports are not universal but are repeated enough to be a significant pattern—particularly tied to times of low staffing or high turnover.
Net assessment and recommendations for families: Charter Senior Living of Annapolis offers genuine strengths for families seeking specialized memory care: a dedicated dementia-only model, a dementia-friendly physical design, active programming, on-site medical and hospice services, and many genuinely compassionate staff and leaders who make the community feel home-like and social. However, recurring operational issues—staffing shortages (especially nights), turnover, inconsistent frontline training, medication and toileting lapses, and variable management communication—are substantial concerns raised by multiple reviewers. Cost is also a consistent consideration, including supplemental private-duty night charges.
If you are considering this community, the reviews suggest specific due diligence: tour the memory-care neighborhoods during different shifts (including nights and weekends), ask for current staff-to-resident ratios and turnover metrics, inquire about licensed staff coverage 24/7, request recent incident or inspection reports, clarify medication administration policies and contingency plans for pain medication and transfers, confirm toileting and hydration protocols, get details about extra charges for private-duty care, and speak with multiple families about their recent experiences. Many reviewers who ultimately recommended Charter emphasized that when staffing and leadership are stable, the community excels at dementia care—so assessing current operational stability will be key to predicting future experience.
