The Waterford at Bridle Brook

My 88 year old dad has been a resident at BridleBrook for just over two years now and has loved every minute of it. He had lived alone in a town three hours south of here and was having such balance issues that it was concerning for all of us kids. When he went in for back surgery, we knew that he would ultimately need to go into an assisted living facility once he was through with rehabilitation, so I went to visit all of the facilities in the greater Chambana area.
While all the different facilities were nice and had lots of lovely features, I felt at home the moment I walked in the door at BridleBrook. The décor is warm and friendly and the staff even more so. As I sat in the lobby waiting for the sales manager to take me on my tour, I had no less than 3 different staff members and 4 different residents speak to me. This was above and beyond the deciding factor for me.
Ok, on to the details.
BridleBrook serves three meals in their dining room each day, or a resident can request to take their meals in their room. Menus are presented weekly. Breakfast offerings switch among favorites such as waffles, biscuits and gravy, or pancakes, or you can always have eggs your way or cereal or oatmeal. Lunch and dinner have featured items such as meatloaf or citrus grilled shrimp or fried chicken and always includes a starch and veggie and a roll. In addition to the features, there is a salad bar with soup, fresh fruit, green salad and fixings, pudding and/​or yogurt, and ham or tuna salad. If you don’t like the featured item, there is an ‘anytime menu’ that has stuff like hamburgers or shrimp cocktail or grilled cheese or chicken strips along with fries or onion rings or tater tots. Guests can dine with the resident for $ 7 per meal. There is also a secondary dining room separated from the regular dining room by french doors. This can be reserved for private dinners or parties. And, in addition to the regular meals, there is a separate ice cream shop down the hall that is open for 2 hours each afternoon and is decorated in 50’s fashion.
There are multiple different public living room areas as well as televisions and tables to play cards, put together puzzles, play dominoes, or do crafts. There is a separate area that has a full kitchen plus large tables where the ladies do crafts and can use the full size refrigerator and oven if they want to make a favorite meal. Additionally, there is a library, a billiards room, a hair salon, a nail salon, and an exercise area with recumbent bikes and treadmills and the like. There are outdoor courtyards and of course you can always find residents sitting out front keeping tabs on the goings on out front. Their activity director has all sorts of events planned each week, including a Friday ‘wine before you dine’, and a monthly themed family event with a buffet dinner and music.
The size of the facility is perfect – it is small enough to still have a family vibe and allow the residents to know everyone who lives there, but is also large enough to allow privacy and not create awkward situations if there are residents who might not enjoy being around each other. This was another big selling point for me – some of the other facilities either seemed too big with elevators to rooms or too small with fewer than 40 residents. This setup was just right with a single floor and two separate ‘pods’. There is also a memory care unit on the west end of the facility that allows for a higher level of care if needed.
There are three different room types available: studio, one bedroom, and two bedroom. All of these include a kitchenette with a small but full size fridge (other places only had a dorm sized mini fridge), a microwave, and full size kitchen sink as well as lots of cabinet space. There is also an eating counter in each room if a resident chooses to eat in-​room, or they can use it as a desk area. Additionally all rooms have basic DISH network TV and residents are all given a bracelet with a call button to notify the staff if they are needed. Each room has an ENORMOUS bathroom with ADA accessible shower and toilet and grab bars everywhere.
Although this facility has changed ownership twice since I originally toured it, they have managed to maintain consistency in much of what they do… knowing full well that sometimes elderly folks are not particularly big fans of dramatic change. There does seem to be a rather high rate of turnover in the CNAs and the kitchen staff, but they have all been kind.
Pricing is set as a combination of the ‘rent’ portion, and based on the size of the room, and the level of care portion, based on how much assistance your resident will need on a daily/​weekly basis.
There are numerous assisted living options in the greater CU area and it seems as though there are more every day. But my dad tells me on a regular basis how happy he is at BridleBrook and how thankful he is for the staff there. That is the true test. :)