Before the advent of the internet, families relied on Assisted Care Referral Services or Assisted Living Placement Agencies to find the most suitable assisted living facility for their loved ones. Those who are inexperienced with assisted living and who are currently caring for an elderly person may find it challenging to select an appropriate living arrangement for their loved one. Furthermore, they are useful for people who must be far away from loved ones who need care. When trying to limit your options, referral services are a huge help. And they don’t charge families for their help.
Location, financial considerations, present and projected care needs, and community amenities are just a few of the variables that come into play when trying to place a person in an appropriate assisted living facility. All this and more community-specific data can be obtained in a matter of minutes through the use of referral services. It would take a person many days of phone calls and in-person meetings to acquire this information from each of the many assisted living communities in their selected area. More sales pitches would be thrown at them, making it even more challenging to gain the information they require.
An advantage of using a referral service is that they have access to data that families might not be aware of, in addition to the standard information they would expect to find. Data such as average daily prices, occupancy rates, resident-to-staff ratios, distance from medical facilities, patient satisfaction surveys, and evaluations from residents’ families and friends. Additionally, referral services can help families save money by ensuring they sign up for the appropriate amount of care and understanding how to negotiate with the assisted living place.
Most families will see a home before making a commitment to a neighborhood. Tours are important, but they may be taxing on both your time and emotions. If you use a recommendation service, you may only require one or two tours instead of the usual five or six. Plus, they help with the tour schedule.
Senior Placement Center, Sacramento
Even though Assisted Living Referral Services (ALRS) provide a crucial free service, it’s important for families to know how ALRS makes money since some people may be uncomfortable with the way ALRS uses and shares their personal information.
Almost all assisted living referral firms profit when a client moves into an assisted living facility they have referred them to. In this case, the assisted living facility pays for the referral service. In most cases, the referring party will pay the referral service the price of a full month’s lease. This is how referral services make money, but families also have an interest in the process referral organizations use to keep tabs on new residents.
Certain information is collected about a person when they first make contact with an assisted living referral service, either over the phone or online. Typical questions include name and contact info; relationship to care recipient; and location (city or town) where they are looking for a place to live. Soon after a caller connects with a referral service, that service will forward the caller’s information to multiple assisted living facilities in the area of choice. These retirement communities will start calling soon after. Because the referral service wants credit for referring the person to the assisted living complex, everything happens extremely quickly. This is done so that the community will pay them when a family member moves in.
Any assisted living facility your family member ultimately chooses will result in payment to the recommendation service. As a result, they are competent at (or should be competent at) giving objective accounts of the properties they review. Regardless of whether you think they did a good job or not, they are still entitled to payment. So, don’t be shy about putting them to work for you.
Sacramento’s assisted living referral services are a great resource for finding the right assisted living facility for your family member, but it’s still a good idea to do some research on the topic before getting in touch with anyone. You should at least be familiar with the general area around which you’re looking for an apartment. It may be a specific city or town, or it could be anything within a reasonable driving distance (less than 30 minutes, for instance). Your loved one’s care needs, both in the short and long term, should be known to you. In particular, do they need help because of Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia, or do they just need help with basic daily tasks? Finally, you should have a good idea of whether you’re looking for a moderately priced, high-end, or the cheapest assisted living facility available in the area. Learn how much an assisted care facility will cost in your region.
When contacting the referral service, make sure to inquire as to any other criteria that should be used to narrow down your search for an assisted living facility. Make a note of the criteria, and have the referral service investigate those criteria across all of the communities in your area.
Keep in mind that after your talk, assisted living facilities in Sacramento will likely begin calling you. Just take the call and explain that you’re working with a placement agency and would rather not talk to the assisted living facility just now, if that’s what disturbs you. Tell them you’ll call them back when you’re ready and to stop calling you in the meantime.
Having reduced your choices down to a few, consult with your Referral Service Advisor on how to go about bargaining with the communities. They need to be conversant in the concept of “occupancy rates,” as well as knowledgeable about which costs are up for discussion and which are not. Compare two different houses using the Service to see whether you can save money.
A helpful referral service for assisted living facilities will provide objective information about the facilities they recommend. When you ask a question and they don’t know the answer, they should offer to do some research for you. That’s not something you should have to take care of for them. The same goes for their ability to respond. If they are unable to answer your questions right away, you should hear back from them within a day or two. If they don’t get back to you in that time, you should follow up with them to find out why. Finally, do not be afraid to look for a new provider if you are unhappy with the current one. Having begun working with a certain agency does not obligate you to continue doing so.