A Place for Mom

It all started with phone message. Followed by a letter. The assisted living facility my mother has called home for a dozen years was shutting down. Not one who takes change easily, even in her younger years, this was going to be a challenging process finding mom a new place to live.

In passing, I mentioned what was going on to a friend at work. She told me that her husband was going through something similar for his mom in Los Angeles. The next day, Bruce sent me an email with a link to a resource he had used to find housing for his mother. A Place for Mom, Inc. is a nationwide information service about eldercare options including nursing homes, assisted living facilities, adult family homes, independent living and home care agencies.

After poking around on their website, I decided to enter basic information on the home page and start a search. Within 10 minutes, I received a call. I tend to be suspicious by nature, so I was expecting a “sales” pitch. But, I wanted to leave no stone unturned, and was willing to listen if it helped me make a better decision. I was pleasantly surprised – Barbara was empathetic, seemed to know what she was talking about, and provided helpful suggestions, particularly about applying for additional financial help for mom.

Barbara followed up by email within an hour, with 10 senior facilities that fit our budget and location requirements. All at no cost to me. I’m not naïve, and on their website it’s clearly stated: “In order to provide the information service to consumers at no charge, participating facilities or agencies pay a fee to A Place for Mom, Inc.” I also leaned heavily on mom’s current assisted living facility, which provided solid information about senior housing in the area.

So, off we went to search for mom’s new home. Every few days, I’d get an email or call from Barbara. She sent articles about other families’ experiences. She asked how I liked the facilities we’d toured. She provided particularly helpful information about a little known financial assistance program for surviving widows of veterans. Barbara treaded that fine line between showing real interest and coming on too strong. I appreciated her as a resource.

What I liked about A Place for Mom (www.aplaceformom.com) was that Barbara provided a service that offered real value – saved me time in identifying options we could afford, provided information I didn’t have about financial resources, and followed up to get our impression of the facilities they’d recommended. The final step was a survey Barbara sent me to rate their service. Oh, and yes, we are on track to get mom moved in to her new home next month.