The Willows Senior Living

Nancy

This is a licensed Adult Foster Care home (AFC) with two caring owners and three or more caring staff members who provide excellent care. It was built as a care home for developmentally disabled people by the State of Michigan, and was later sold to private owners., so it is built to be easily navigated by wheelchairs, shower chairs, and so on. The hallway is wide and doors are wide. The bathroom is built for caregivers to bathe the residents, so is nothing like a small family bathroom. My sister, Sue, lived here after having a stroke. She had a private room with her own TV and a big window. A closet held all her things and the staff had a little cart to hold all her care needs right at hand. We signed up for Hospice and they worked really well with staff and responded to every need my sister had. The day my sister was discharged from the hospital, her insurance had sent out a home care nurse. The nurse did not even seem to notice how congested my sister was, because she did not order anything at all for treating it. Hours later, when I arrived, the staff and owner were considering sending my sister out to a hospital for treatment of pneumonia! She sounded terrible. The hospice nurse was there and he listened to her chest once my sister said that she thought that Hospice care was right for her. Sue signed herself up for Hospice and the nurse ordered antibiotics, which the home’s pharmacy delivered that night. Sue got the breathing treatments she needed, meds on time, good food and perfect care, even though she was bedbound. Sue lived another four months at The Willows. She was comfortable there. Her skin on her bottom improved with their care, so she did not get the bedsores from skin breakdown that she was developing at the hospital. She eventually started eating better there, and this helped. When Sue developed Sundowner’s Syndrome, the staff worked with Hospice to get medication to stop her angry attacks on her caregivers. My sister’s life ended without pain, and with dignity and peace because of the excellent care that she was given here.

Cosette

My husband had a stroke and I took care of him at home for about 6mo until I couldn’t manage him anymore. The first nursing facility he went to was beautiful, large dining room lots of other amenities that of course he couldn’t use. Very expensive. However the ratio of caregiver to patient was about 2 to 15 and when I went to visit him I would find him sitting in front of the nurses station along with other elderly people slumped over in his chair. It broke my heart. And then with the help of a friend I found The Willows. It’s a four bedroom house set out in the country though not far from Rochester, Oxford, Lake Orion etc..the patient to care giver is a max of 6 patients to two caregivers. It’s not fancy but it is clean and comfortable. My husband sat at a table for all of his meals with usually just two or three other residents and then usually moved to a recliner, with the help of a hoyer lift, to watch tv. The staff was outstanding! We got to know them all along with the other residents who had been there for some time. It felt like family. I thank god that we found this facility run and owned by two very professional people. They always went above and beyond for my Bob and I will forever be grateful. If you want great care and more than adequate amenities this is for you..at half the cost of the big fancy places. Thanks to everyone at “The Willows”!

Brad

The Willows Senior Living was quite small. It's a house that has five residents. So, it had a home-like setting as opposed to a hotel or hospital-like setting which the rest of them had. They didn't have a whole lot of facilities and my dad was not in terrific shape when he got there, but it's again a nice home-like atmosphere. They have very little amenities. There's a nice family room area that looks out onto an outdoor porch where it's out in the woods. So, it's got a nice view and such, but it doesn't have the big dining rooms and all the stuff that the other ones have. The staff was very nice and very helpful. They didn't seem rushed, overworked, and short-staffed like some of the other ones that we had visited. The food was OK. They did an exercise video thing and some crafts, but they don't have a lot of activities like the other places do.