I used Owl Be There to find a place for my dad. They interviewed me to see what I was looking for and then arranged 3 different places to see. We did this on Zoom, during the pandemic. They were very helpful in helping me figure out what I needed and didn't need. They knew what questions to ask.

It was kinda like a travel agent, in that they get a kick back from the assisted living place if you sign up.

Yeah, do it yourself. Good ones:

Kensington Park South (there’s a wait list)
Moderna Reserve in Kensington
Brightview West End in Rockville

Honestly I would just do it yourself. You’re going to have to call and tour these places anyway and that’s most of the work. A place for mom etc doesn’t know your elder’s personality to be able to judge a good fit.

Anonymous wrote:There are case managers who do this, but ask:
a) Do they get a commission from the place you end up using
b) Do they have a whole age in place set up with contractors.

If they have an age in place set up, they may dissuade your parent from AL because they profit from having you use all their contractors.

The best way is to visit the places yourself more than once and get as much feedback as possible from people who have family members there. Are you in a support group? Those people share a lot of valuable info.

If you are too far away and don't have the luxury of all the visits, then you do the best you can and just hire a case manager or social worker and hope the person has integrity.

Anyone can recommend their own service on here or nextdoor and pretend to be a pleased customer. Places can purchase positive Yelp reviews to offset negative, and negative reviews can be helpful or from someone with unrealistic expectations.

I agree with PP about asking questions about relationships and commissions wrt case managers. I would never recommend using case manager for anything like this - they are far from objective and many times barely competent.

Synergy home care Rockville

Elder tree

I actually did like a Place for Mom once the time came that we were more serious. You will get a ton of calls from senior places at first that feels like a spam overload, but once the time came that we were seriously looking for a home for my mother, I got a great rep at A Place for Mom who curated a list in the region I was looking, within my mom's meager budget, and who coordinated the tours for us - she was a godsend! It's a completely free service too.

Anonymous wrote:I went to a training that recommended Oasis Senior Advisors but have no personal experience with them.

I was actually going to mention them but then thought as PP said, someone may think I work for them and am self promoting. I’m not and I get no kickback or commission but I work for a company that helps tangentially-related services and have found the guy we’ve worked with at Oasis to be compassionate, responsive, and effective in finding good placement options for clients.
They do get a referral fee (from the facility) if a client they refer is placed there, but he doesnt just blast out the client’s name to every facility in a 20-mile radius and then sit back to wait for a commission check. He actually helped us narrow down what the clients top needs were, found three options that met the criteria, visited the facilities personally so could answer specific pro/con questions about each objectively, and helped us guide our client in making the decision. Basically, he earned it. And the clients we’ve placed through him/Oasis have been happy.

Anyone have experience with Silver Stay? Is it only for people leaving a hospital stay?

https://www.silverstay.com/our-team

I went to a training that recommended Oasis Senior Advisors but have no personal experience with them.

There are case managers who do this, but ask:
a) Do they get a commission from the place you end up using
b) Do they have a whole age in place set up with contractors.

If they have an age in place set up, they may dissuade your parent from AL because they profit from having you use all their contractors.

The best way is to visit the places yourself more than once and get as much feedback as possible from people who have family members there. Are you in a support group? Those people share a lot of valuable info.

If you are too far away and don't have the luxury of all the visits, then you do the best you can and just hire a case manager or social worker and hope the person has integrity.

Anyone can recommend their own service on here or nextdoor and pretend to be a pleased customer. Places can purchase positive Yelp reviews to offset negative, and negative reviews can be helpful or from someone with unrealistic expectations.

Don’t use a place for mom.
Why?
Because they have great marketing but offer no tangible help.
They’ll just take your info over the phone and will put your name on a list that they send out to all the AL communities in your area! Then the sales reps from each place start calling you non-stop to try to get you to take a tour. All of that is fine but it means you still have to do all the vetting and sifting through options yourself and you don’t know why one would be better than another.
And then if you finally do sign in the dotted line, they have to give a kickback commission to A Place For Mom rep who gave them your name. 🤨 and those reps aren’t even local and they haven’t ever been to the facilities.

I’d appreciate any recs for assisted living placement service agencies in Montgomery County. (The agencies that compile a list of recommended assisted living places for you to investigate/visit based on your requested criteria.) Thanks.