A recent expose by the Washington Post (available for free on msn here) finds that the nation’s largest senior placement advisory service, A Place for Mom, promotes communities with major safety and care violations. Our locally owned Los Angeles-based company, Assisted Living Locators Los Angeles, has been explaining the questionable practices of A Place for Mom to clients for years. Finally, The Washington Post’s explosive investigation provides our company with the receipts.
You’ve probably seen their ads on television and the internet. A Place for Mom spends millions of dollars a year promoting itself as the nation’s leading “trusted advisory service,” but APFM is a referral service with work-from-home “outbound phone sales consultants” who are “competitive by nature” and have a “history of exceeding sales quotas.” (Read the full APFM job description here)
“In some states, more than a third of the popular website’s most highly recommended facilities have been cited for substandard care,” writes The Washington Post. In a review of 863 recommended facilities on A Place for Mom, the Washington Post found that 37.5% of them, 324 in all, had been cited by inspectors for serious violations affecting resident care such as failure to respond to call buttons, failure to bathe and groom residents, understaffing, poor training, and sometimes, violence and sexual abuse.
Using a Senior Living Advisor Is Important. But Use a Local One.
Although A Place for Mom advertises itself as the nation’s leading trusted advisory service, by design, it is out of touch with the local market. In Los Angeles, a better option for families needing to find a safe assisted living facility for a loved one is to turn to a local senior living advisory company. National companies like A Place for Mom don’t have the local knowledge or relationships to provide real-time information and recommendations.
Los Angeles has about a dozen reputable senior living advisory companies, and Assisted Living Locators Los Angeles is among the top. Like Assisted Living Locators, a trustworthy company will be embedded directly in their community and have comprehensive relationships with reputable Los Angeles providers. Although, in California, there are no certifications needed to run an assisted living advisory service, a good company will freely discuss their training and knowledge with you and demonstrate a proven track record of success.
At Assisted Living Locators Los Angeles, the first step before considering the addition of a facility to its portfolio is to analyze the facility’s California Dept. of Social Services inspection logs for safety and care requirements. Assisted Living Locators visits the community in person, meets the staff, and talks to residents. Only then, does an assisted living community become eligible for recommendation.
A benefit of working with a company like Assisted Living Locators Los Angeles, which has been in business since 2015, is the feedback it receives from the clients it has placed. In the case of Assisted Living Locators LA, the company has helped to place close to 1,000 residents. The subsequent insights gained from talking to residents and their families after a move-in allows the company to further tailor recommendations, with the result that sometimes a community is deleted from the portfolio if the circumstances of that community’s operation have changed.
Most importantly, the sign of a good senior living advisor is their willingness to tour with the client. Having an expert set of eyes advocating for a family when visiting can be crucial in concluding a successful placement. “Not every community is right for every client,” says Assisted Living Locators Senior Living Advisor, Laura Barrett. “When we walk into a community with a client, we are walking in with fresh eyes – their eyes. Combining their needs with our understanding of how a particular community operates allows us to help the client decide with the highest chances for success.”
Read the full WP story on msn here.
About Assisted Living Locators
Since 2003, thousands of families have been helped by Assisted Living Locators, one of the nation’s leading free senior living placement services. The Los Angeles office is operated by Sarah Ordover, owner of Assisted Living Locators Los Angeles. Her team services clients from Glendale and Burbank to Santa Monica, including West Hollywood, Century City, Westwood, and everything in between. The office also represents clients looking for senior living south of Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley in neighborhoods such as Sherman Oaks, Encino, and Studio City. The Los Angeles office can be reached at www.assistedlivinglocatorsla.com.
