Overview of Senior Living Placement Agencies
You and your family have come together and concluded that the time has come for your aging parent to move into some type of senior long-term care facility. For example, your senior mother or father may be on track to moving to an assisted living community. Having reached that juncture, you and your family likely find yourselves now contemplating what are the best assisted living options available to your parent (or other loved one). One resource available to you are senior living placement agencies.
If you are like many, if not most people, you are not really familiar with the term senior living placement agencies. You don’t know what senior living placement agencies have to offer to you when it comes to your search for an ideal assisted living community for your mother, father, or other loved one. While you may not know precisely what is offered by senior living placement agencies (of what these services really are in the first place), you almost certainly have seen and heard about some of the companies that operate in this arena. The reality is that in this day and age, you cannot sit in front of your television for much time without being exposed to an advertisement for a senior living placement agency.
In this article, we provide you with an explanation of the work of senior living placement agencies and how these companies can best assist you in your search for a supportive place for your parent to reside. We also provide you a brief overview of some of the leading senior living placement agencies in service to older Americans.
What Are Senior Living Placement Agencies?
A senior living placement consultant or advisor is a person who works closely with people considering moving to some type of long-term care facility and their families. At their essence, senior living placement agencies are companies comprised of multiple consultants or advisors that work with older individuals and their families in finding the most suitable senior living facilities, including assisted living communities.
Senior living placement agencies identify the specific goals and objectives of individuals planning a move to a long-term care facility. They also work with family members as well in the process. Agencies then recommend some specific long-term care facilities that will best meet these goals and objectives.
Examples of Senior Living Placement Agencies
There are a good number of senior living placement agencies in operation in the United States today. In this article, we provide a listing of some of the larger senior living placement agencies. We provide this information to give you an idea of the types of senior living placement agencies available to you and your family today. The agencies we examine are:
- A Place for Mom
- Caring.com
- OurParents.com
- SeniorHomes.com
- SeniorsForLiving.com
A Place for Mom
A Place for Mom garners solid reviews from people who have used the agency’s services. (You do need to take online reviews with a grain of salt. Having said that, there are a considerable number of what do appear to be legitimate positive reviews in favor of a Place for Mom.)
A Place for Mom provides local advisors that focus on working with older people looking for a long-term care option and their families. A person or family seeking a long-term facility are paired with a specific advisor who works with them from start to finish. Again, this advisor will be local and familiar with the specific market in which a facility is sought.
At this time, A Place for Mom has over 400 local advisors on its team. The services provided by A Place for Mom are free to consumers seeking a long-term care living option for a parent or other family member.
Caring.com
Older individuals and families that have used Caring.com note that this senior living placement agency indicate that it is helpful in identifying specific long-term care facilities in the community where the senior family member resides. Some people who have used Caring.com have remarked that basic information from the agency is solid and reliable; however, these individuals also make a point of saying that there are some limitations on the ability to get additional information from the agency about specific matters associated with initially recommended facilities.
OurParents.com
Although smaller than A Place for Mom, OurParents.com operates in a manner similar to A Place for Mom. For example, OurParents.com assigns a specific advisor to work with individual seniors and their families. The team at OurParents.com is also said to be very helpful in contacting local long-term care facilities, including assisted living communities, on behalf of seniors and their families.
Again, we understand limitations of online reviews. With that again noted, OurParents.com does garner high marks from consumers – indeed, the highest marks among the senior living placement agencies discussed in this article.
SeniorHomes.com
SeniorHomes.com is another senior living placement agency we present for your consideration. SeniorHomes.com provides information on over 80,000 different types of senior living communities across the United States. These listings include:
- Detailed pricing information
- Detailed information about provider services
- Detailed information about amenities
- Reviews from prior consumer who have used SeniorHomes.com services
SeniorsForLiving.com
SeniorsForLiving.com provides an online resource that provides essential information about senior living facilities in a number of communities across the country. This information includes:
- Available services at a particular long-term care facility
- Amenities at a specific senior facility
- Payment options accepted by a facility
- Activities available at a particular senior living facility
SeniorsForLiving.com provides a phone line that consumers can call to obtain more information about senior living facilities.
Senior living placement agencies can be helpful to some older women and men who are looking into moving to a long-term care facility, including assisted living. Moreover, senior living placement agencies can also provide useful information to their family members as well.
Many senior living facilities have team members that are adept at providing older individuals and their families the information the need directly to assist them in making informed, educated decisions about what facility makes the most sense for a loved one. In other words, there is a variety of resources available to a person considering moving to a senior living community (and their families).