ServicesBickford House is listed as a retirement community in Bloomington, IL.
Contact Bickford House to discuss your retirement living needs in the Bloomington, IL area at (309) 661-0094 or schedule an appointment to visit the facility located at 14 Heartland Drive Ofc, Bloomington, IL 61704.
It's hard to write this review because the local staff at Bickford House Bloomington are top notch. They truly became family during the two years my mom has been there and I would recommend *them* enthusiastically to anyone.
We came to Bickford House because of the company philosophy that they provide a truly individualized system. That is, supposedly the care evolves as your loved one does, and whatever comes -- in our case, my mom's Alzheimer's -- can be addressed. But beware: Bickford is a corporation and the home office is as cynical and heartless and the local staff are wonderful. The Bickford sales propaganda will tell you that your loved one becomes part of the "Bickford family," but it's "family" in the spirit of those awful families that adopt a child and then try to return him or her a few years later because parenting is hard. My mom was part of the "Bickford family" while things were easy, but when complications of her Alzheimer's made things more difficult, we were essentially kicked out. To be clear, the corporate office didn't exactly say we had to leave; they simply made it impossible to stay by insisting that as a condition of mom remaining there we had to contract for 12 hours per day of one-on-one supervision with an outside agency. This adds about $8000/month on top of the considerable fees we already pay at Bickford and raises the interesting question of what those fees actually pay for if mom has an external one-on-one helper during all waking hours. Clearly this was a way of getting rid of us without having to say so directly. Here's the take-home: If your loved one is pretty independent and has relatively few special needs, you'll find the Bickford Bloomington staff to be amazing. If special needs are involved, you'll also find the local staff to be amazing -- they did so much for my mom that we will never forget! But ultimately don't count on the corporate folks letting the local staff do their jobs for very long, and don't get caught up in the company propaganda that says this is an Alzheimer's friendly situation. The company clearly doesn't believe this (ironic, given that the company was begun by a woman who couldn't find adequate Alzheimer's care for her mother). You shouldn't believe it either.