Local referral agencies do business quite differently than online lead generators. Read one Portland woman’s story about her experience and the differences between help via the internet vs a local, caring and listening agency.
Mary called me as her husband needed help. Mary’s story was sad, her husband had Alzheimer’s and needed a lot of help. Her son had just passed and she just had surgery. Mary didn’t have time to grieve for her son or recover from her surgery because she was the main caregiver for her husband.
Getting trapped on the internet.
Mary contacted an internet lead generator that sent her a couple of names of memory care facilities in her community. The marketing people from those facilities immediately started calling Mary asking her to come for a tour, come for lunch, come soon as they only had one room available and others were interested—she should come right away or the room would be rented by somebody else. She was getting a lot of pressure to tour right away, so Mary, on her own, visited the places the internet lead generator sent her. She hated them both so decided to keep her husband at home putting her own recovery and grieving on hold.
Changing course with the help of a local business.
A friend of Mary’s let her know there are local referral agencies that can help too, so she contacted me. I met with Mary, listened to her talk about her husband and what care he needed and her need for time to grieve for the death of her son and recover from her surgery.
I asked about her finances and what they could afford long term to ensure they weren’t leaving her without money to live on. I introduced her to an elder law attorney so she could get a Power of Attorney for her husband as moving into a memory care community requires POAs. I asked what was important to her and to him. I listened.
Success- finding the right fit.
I took Mary to tour a memory care community less than a mile from her house. The community doesn’t contract with the internet lead generators so they didn’t tell her about that option. The community is tucked back into a neighborhood so she didn’t even know it existed. She loved the community, clicked with the staff and knew right away it was the right place for her husband. She was able to move him in as soon as the Power of Attorney was completed. She was then able to focus on her own care and become a wife again rather than a caregiver.
Local Referral Agencies = Hands-on.
Local referral agencies do more than send clients names of options. They listen to what their clients need. They ask about finances and offer ideas on how to pay for retirement living. They tour with their clients; they ask questions clients may not think to ask. They visit every community before touring so they’re familiar with the community’s strengths and weaknesses. They check county records to see if there are substantiated complaints or bad survey results that may be red flags. They hold their clients’ hand through the process and are advocates for the clients.
Local referral agencies know that the senior’s needs come first and do everything they can to ensure the ultimate decision is the right fit.
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