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Pet-friendly senior living with a home-like atmosphere
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Older adults and their families have a lot of choices for senior living facilities, but that hasn't always been the case. Bickford Senior Living was founded in Olathe, Kansas, in 1992, when Mary Bickford's family realized there was no suitable living arrangement outside their home for their mother and wife. In the past 30 years, her family has expanded the business to include 61 senior living facilities in 10 states. Bickford Senior Living continues to honor Mary's memory, providing services and a loving, pet-friendly environment to people who want to live in a home-like atmosphere but aren't safe at home alone.
The facilities offer memory care, assisted living, and independent living housing and services. Staff, called “family members,” provide residents with everything from homestyle meals to help with the activities of daily living to medication management services. In this review, we'll cover more services offered by Bickford Senior Living, as well as locations, rates, and more.
Each Bickford Senior Living branch offers a certain level of care. Some offer assisted living and memory care, while others offer independent living and assisted living. Make sure the location you contact has the level of service you're looking for. Below, we'll look at the types of care Bickford offers.
Trained health care professionals administer all medications at Bickford Senior Living properties. An electronic medication-administration system keeps a record of meds to avoid any mix-ups. Bickford also does prescription fulfillment, so that's one fewer task to keep track of.
As older adults age, their likelihood of needing help with personal care activities increases.1 Fortunately, Bickford Senior Living offers ADL services to seniors who need them. Certified caregivers help with bathing, dressing, grooming, mobility, and toileting. Bickford's five levels of care range from independent to advanced care. Every 90 days, a nurse will review your plan and make any necessary adjustments. Bickford hopes to meet every senior's needs for as long as possible to minimize moves throughout the later years.
Registered nurses on staff coordinate care for all residents and oversee all caregivers. That includes communicating with external care providers such as doctors, pharmacies, therapists, and medical equipment providers. Nurses also develop individualized service plans and conduct routine observations for changes in resident health and wellness.
Seniors with dementia need a little extra care. Bickford offers support groups and specialized small group activities designed for residents with memory difficulties. Dementia programming also includes the creation of a Lifesong document, which contains historical information — think hobbies, career, favorite memories — caregivers can use in their daily interactions. That gets paired with a Lifesong basket/station, which contains items that match your loved one's interests. A clipboard, blank patient charts, and a stethoscope may be used if your loved one used to be a doctor.
Bickford also offers premium companion care services for an added cost. A resident enjoys one-on-one activities aimed at keeping them engaged and happy.
Older adults who live at any Bickford Senior Living location all have access to similar services. Let's take a look at some services Bickford offers to meet seniors' basic needs.
Everyone needs to eat, but cooking becomes more difficult and even unsafe for a lot of adults as they age.2 At Bickford, residents enjoy homestyle dining with cooked-to-order breakfast and multiple entrée and a la carte selections for lunch and dinner. Chefs gladly accommodate a variety of dietary restrictions, such as gluten-free, no added salt, diabetic, or lactose intolerant.
Themed Presidents Day menu at the Bickford of Presque Isle Bay. Source: Bickford Senior Living.
Social isolation and loneliness can cause a slew of problems for older adults. One study even suggests that social isolation is associated with a 50 percent increased risk of dementia.3 Bickford Senior Living combats both by offering a variety of activities, events, and outings.
Example of community updates posted on the Bickford branch websites. Source: Bickford Senior Living.
Bickford meets its residents' safety needs too. All buildings have controlled access to keep residents and visitors safe. Every apartment has strategically placed pull cords, and residents receive a pendant with a help button so they can request assistance 24/7, no matter where they are in the facility. Residents in the memory care program, called Mary B's, also receive personal monitoring devices with real-time location information for enhanced safety.
Getting around can be a major struggle as you age. That's why Bickford helps its residents coordinate transportation, whether it's a taxi to the airport or a handicapped-accessible ride to a doctor's appointment. For an added cost, residents can use Bickford's Companion Care service. A Bickford employee will transport you to and from any scheduled appointment. This is a great service if you require supervision or assistance while you're out and about.
Chaplain services seek to meet your spiritual needs. Bickford offers nondenominational church services, Bible studies, and small group meetings on-site. You can also request specific denominational services, or have one-on-one visits with chaplains from Marketplace Chaplains.
If there's a special furry friend in your life, then you're in luck! Bickford welcomes all shapes and sizes of pets. Every facility offers pet assistance services, so you can receive extra help with feeding your pet, taking them outside, or dealing with the litter box. Bickford also hosts traditional and nontraditional pets for pet therapy visits to help reduce residents' loneliness, anxiety, and stress. There are even “community pets” that live at each branch for everyone to enjoy.
Bickford Senior Living residents with their pets. Source: Bickford Senior Living.
Bickford Senior Living provides individual rate ranges online for each of its branches. Simply choose the location you're interested in, and you'll see the rates displayed on the branch's homepage. Factors such as location, apartment type, and level of care and services required all affect your daily cost.
Let's take a look at the rates for the branch in Shelby Township, Michigan. Living at this facility costs between $165 and $300 per day.
That may seem high, but you'll likely find that Bickford is more affordable than your current housing situation thanks to its all-inclusive pricing model. Use the easy-to-use price comparison tool on the Bickford website to help you compare your current cost of living to the cost of living at Bickford.
Helpful Tip: Many Bickford branches are assisted living facilities. Check out our ultimate guide to assisted living to see if it may be right for you or your loved one.
In addition to comparing Bickford to your current expenses, it's also helpful to see how it stacks up to other facilities in the country. In 2021, the median cost of residential long-term care ranged from $148 to $297 per day.4 You can find cheaper options than Bickford, but you’re likely to encounter much pricier options too.
Bickford of Presque Isle Bay in Erie, Pennsylvania. Source: Bickford Senior Living.
Bickford uses the word “all-inclusive” to describe its rates. Of course, that doesn't mean everything is included, but it does include a lot.
It's up to residents and their families to pay for or provide the following services and items:
The salon at Bickford at Mission Spring Assisted Living and Memory Care in Mission, Kansas. Source: Bickford Senior Living.
Bickford Senior Living is a 100 percent private-pay senior living provider. Older adults hoping to live at a Bickford facility will need to use savings, long-term care insurance, reverse mortgages, Social Security benefits, or other private funds to cover costs.
For advice on how to pay for Bickford or any senior living facility, check out our tips for paying for assisted living and tips for paying for memory care.
Bickford Senior Living has 61 branches in 10 states, but the majority of facilities are in Iowa and Illinois. The full list includes:
Bickford Senior Living has 13 locations across Iowa. Source: Bickford Senior Living.
Bickford Senior Living is a family-owned-and-operated business that helps seniors age gracefully and safely in a home-like environment. It offers pet-friendly assisted living and programs you won't find from every senior living facility. It lists transparent price ranges right on its website, which takes some of the stress out of the search for your new home. Before choosing Bickford for yourself or your loved one, make sure you know how you're going to pay for it since it accepts only private pay.
Public Tableau. (2018). Figure 12.2. Percentage of adults aged 65 and over who needed help with personal care from other persons, by age group and sex: United States, 2018.
National Library of Medicine. (2012). Aging: physical difficulties and safety in cooking tasks.
The National Academies Press. (2020). Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults.
Genworth. (2021). Cost of Care Survey.
