Google "Free Senior Referral Service'" and the search engine will offer you in the neighborhood of 1,800,000 web pages to choose from. Does this give you the idea that assisted living and nursing homes referral services are a growing, thriving market? It should!

When stressed to find a good living alternative for a parent caregivers are finding the number of available choices overwhelming. Making a mistake is not an option when it comes to finding a good facility for a senior. Without some kind of guidance it is impossible to know where to start. That's where these placement services come into the picture.

Some of these referral services specialize in specific local areas. Others work primarily online. Many are individually-owned. Some may be franchises. A few are large corporate ventures. Each has its place. However, it's a good idea to know as much as you can before you elect to use this kind of service, so that it will be effective for you.

How Free Senior Placement Services Work

Most free placement services work via the internet or by telephone. Many will not meet face-to-face with either you or your senior. Most do not go out with you to tour facilities.

You will usually be asked to provide basic information about your senior's current living situation: age, gender, care needs (help with daily personal care, medication management and getting around), and your budget (how much you have available to pay for care). Some free placement services will stop there. Others will interview you very thoroughly to get as much information as they can about your elder.

The placement service will then act as a "broker," providing your contact information to the facilities they think are best-suited to your needs. These facilities will contact you to provide their information and offer you a tour.

How a Free Referral Service is Paid

If you ever used an apartment finding service, you will know something about how these services typically work. Rather than charge you a fee for helping you find the right assisted living residence or nursing home, most of these services will have contractual agreements with various facilities in the area. When they successfuly refer a new resident, they receive a "placement fee" from the facility. You pay them nothing yourself.

The placement fee is typically equal to half or all of a month's rent. If the advisor you are working with owns the agency, the advisor keeps these fees. If the advisor works for the service, then he or she is paid a commission for every successful placement.

Questions to Ask a Free Referral Service Before Signing Up

• Who Owns the Service? You will probably prefer to work with a business that is properly registered, be it with the State, or your local county or city government. Although many placement advisors work on commission from their own homes, you should look for a parent business which makes it's ownership information public. That way you can see how long they have been in business, and you can check with your BBB or other agencies to see if there have been any major uncorrected complaints.
  
  

• Will you be working "virtually" over the internet only, or will there be someone you can speak with by telephone as often as necessary?
  
  

• What information does the placement service consider when selecting residences to refer? Do they ask more than basic questions about the senior's social and emotional needs as well as their age, gender, "handicaps," and ability to pay?
  
  

• How many residences will contact you after you have signed up? If the answer is "more than three," it might be a sign that the service will simply send your contact information to everyone on its list. This will not help you target the best options for your particular elder. You might as well simply use the phone book and avoid being barraged by calls that will only add to your stress.
  

• Does the service ever refer to facilities where they do not receive a commission? "Yes" is unlikely, but it will expand the number of resources they can give you to choose from.
  
  

• How long will your agreement with the placement service last? If you are not satisfied with their services, will there be a problem if you decide to use another agency? Particularly when an agency has simply sent out a referral blast to all their contacts, after the family has moved on to a "better" placement agency there have been some significant conflicts between agencies about who will receive the placement fee. While this may be a conflict between placement agencies and the residence, it can create some unpleasantness for the family, as well.

Other Important Information About Free Placement Services

While you may not be personally writing a check, these services are not "free." Their fees are built into the fees of the assisted living or nursing residence, as they must be. It is perfectly legal and ethical, so long as you are aware of the arrangement.

Free placement services rarely refer families to residences that are having no problem staying full on their own. These residences rarely have any need to pay placement fees. Therefore, your referral list will probably lean toward either new facilities that are not yet fullly occupied, or the "second tier" of facilities that are having problems staying full. Brand new residences will often pay referral fees to placement services for a few months until they reach their occupancy goal. They will then stop paying fees and stop working with placement firms.

A good placement firm can save you time and stress when you're looking for a senior residence. However, it is important to keep in mind that there will always be the temptation to refer you to the residence that pays the largest fee. This is human nature. Unfortunately, it means that you will never be 100% sure why a referral service has included a facility on its referral list. Is it because it is truly the best they know of for your senior, or is it because they will receive the greatest commission? You still must do your own thorough due diligence about every facility to be sure it truly is right for your elder.