Senior Living Referral Services: Assessing Your Health Care Needs Eugene-Springfield, Oregon
Helping families in the Eugene – Springfield area navigate senior living decisions
with clarity, compassion, and local expertise.
Families often come to us with different questions. These resources can help you understand the next steps.
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How
It Works
Our Personalize Comprehensive Assessment includes a thorough exploration of your care need, cognitive abilities, finances, and personal interests and preferences.
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Senior
Residential Placement
It is important to identify which is the appropriate type of Senior Living Community that will meet your needs by pinpointing the best fit based on personal care needs, cognition and personal preferences.
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Our Personalized Comprehensive Needs Assessment
Before recommending any senior living option, we take time to understand the full picture of a person’s care needs, preferences, and circumstances through a comprehensive assessment. This allows us to guide families toward solutions that truly fit, rather than offering one-size-fits-all recommendations.
We assess senior care areas such as:
- Mobility and physical care needs
- Activities of daily living
- Medical conditions and medications
- Cognitive and memory concerns
- Personal preferences and support systems
- Financial considerations
- Legal and future planning needs
When Is It Time to Consider Senior Care Placement?
Planning Ahead for Senior Living
While the goal of most seniors is to age in their home, it is never too early to plan ahead for the unforeseeable future of needing to move to a Senior Care Community.
Our free Senior Health Care Assessment will help any senior and his or her family start the conversation of “what if I can no longer live at home?” We use the Senior Health Care Assessment as a tool to educate seniors, and/or the families, about the different options of Senior Care Communities that would be appropriate if and when the time comes. By planning ahead, you avoid the unfortunate crisis mode we often see with many of our clients who aren’t prepared to proactively address the reality of their situation. Most importantly, by allowing A Home To Fit You to assist you in planning for the future, you will have a system in place should a crisis arise.
Even beginning this conversation early can bring relief and clarity.
When Immediate Senior Care Placement Is Needed
It is unfortunate, but most seniors wait until they are in crisis mode before they begin to seek help finding appropriate living placement. They wait as long as possible in their own homes, ignoring or hiding indicators that they need assistance, often waiting until a health emergency occurs that demands immediate assistance. Ideally, we would like to see you planning ahead to help you avoid any unnecessary emergencies or growing health concerns. If you do need immediate help, we will respond with our in-person assessment within the first 24 hours to help you find the senior living facility that will fit your care needs and personal preferences.
In moments like this, having experienced guidance can ease the pressure.
Supporting Families With a Loved One Already in Senior Living
There may be two reasons to call for our services if you or your family member is a senior who is already living in a Senior Care Community:
1) You, or your loved one, are not happy with the services the current facility is providing.
2) Your loved one is needing a higher level of care than what the current facility is able to provide. It could be that physical care needs are greater and require a two-person assist, or that cognition has declined and there is a need to move to a Memory Care Facility.
Our comprehensive Senior Health Care Assessment allows us to advocate for what is best for the senior. We will explore ways to help the senior stay in the current facility. If appropriate, we will facilitate a care conference with the team at the facility to help create an appropriate care plan. If a move is needed, we will help find the right Senior Care Community that is able to provide the level of care we identify in our assessment.
Even beginning this conversation early can bring relief and clarity.
Exploring In-Home Senior Care Options
You may want to explore the option of staying at home as long as possible. Based on our thorough in-person care needs assessment, we use our knowledge and experience to help seniors stay at home by connecting them with the appropriate support services.
Even beginning this conversation early can bring relief and clarity.
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Begin Your Senior Care Referral Process Today
Our Senior Care Advisory Services
Educating, Advocating, Connecting
Senior Self-Care
Our Comprehensive Needs Assessment explores all areas of self-care: mobility, ADL (Activity of Daily Living), household chores and cognition. We will identify the physical and cognitive ability, as well as the difficulties of the senior may have, to care for him or herself. If appropriate, we will recommend in-home care to help support the senior with his self-care needs.
Senior Medical Care
Medical care needs that are changing or require monitoring may affect the senior’s ability to stay at home while avoiding repeated crises, resulting in multiple visits to the doctor’s office, emergency room visits, or hospitalization.
While we are not health care providers, through our Comprehensive Care Needs Assessment, we may identify those issues and recommend Home Health nurse and therapists to help address issues such as medications (polypharmacy), decreased self-care, falls, etc.
Senior Family Support
We believe that family should be involved as much or as little as they are able or wish to be involved. We will help identify the level of care the family members are able to provide and, if appropriate, make suggestions and recommendations for ways the family can help the seniors remain at home with their support.
Senior Financial Support
We do not provide legal or financial services. That said, we do use our experience and knowledge of the cost of either living at home with paid help, or living in a Senior Care Facility to help you with understanding the financial planning that needs to be done. We will explain the advantage and disadvantage of applying for Medicaid, or for a reverse mortgage and the way it may affect the senior’s ability to find a Senior Care Facility to move into.
How Our Senior Living Referral Services Work
We offer a personalized, client-focused, unique process.
Personalized Senior Care Assessment
We begin with an initial assessment with you over the phone
Then we proceed to an in-person Comprehensive Needs Assessment to addressing your, or your loved one’s care needs, cognitive abilities, personal preferences, and financial reviews.
Communities
Senior care communities’ recommendations that best fit your or your loved one’s needs and desires are based on our comprehensive needs assessment.
We arrange and accompany you on selected care community tours.
The Move and Beyond
We assist you with the move into your new home to make the transition as easy as possible. We provide you with continuity, serving as the liaison between you and the care community. We are available to you during this process and beyond.
Medicaid Assistance
Federal law prohibits us from collecting any fee from the care community or the person who is on *Medicaid (not to be confused with Medicare).
Payment
In most cases, we get paid a finder’s fee by the senior community of your choice. We work with all the senior care communities in Lane County.
We will explain any unusual exceptions and payment options after we complete our initial FREE comprehensive assessment.
Frequently Asked Questions About Senior Living Referral Services
I just learned about senior referral services. What can I expect from your agency?
The first thing you should expect from A Home to Fit You is a sense of relief. If you are facing a situation that may require a move to a senior care facility for you or a loved one, I will be there guiding you from the first question you have to the last answer you need. After obtaining the initial information about your situation, I will complete an in-depth in-person assessment with the senior who is in need of care. Based upon these findings of care needs and personal preferences, I will recommend several senior living options that fit best and we will visit them together. Finally, once you select your preferred senior community, I will be there to provide assistance and support through the move, the transition, and beyond.
How can you afford to offer this service for free?
The business model for senior care facilities working with placement agencies is based on a finder’s fee paid to us by the care communities. This fee is not passed on to you, and you won’t incur additional charges from the care community.
This creates a win-win situation: the senior care communities receive referrals from us that are well-suited to their community, saving them time and effort. Meanwhile, our clients benefit from our services at no cost to them, as they are covered by the care community.
In rare cases, the fee may fall on the client. If that occurs, we will discuss it with you after conducting our free initial in-depth in-person assessment.
Which senior living communities do you work with?
I work with all of the senior living communities in the Eugene/Springfield, Oregon area as well as Junction City, Creswell, Cottage Grove and the outlying areas. I personally visit every senior community I refer and assess them to ensure they are up to the highest standards. Parameters include: location, cost structure (including hidden costs), cleanliness, amenities and activities, medical care, caregiver/resident ratio, and state licensing and investigative reporting.
We are just starting to consider senior facility options, but our parent is not ready to move. Can we use your services or should we wait until he/she is ready to move?
Once you recognize physical or cognitive decline in your parent, it is always prudent to have a plan, in case living at home proves to no longer be an option. Using A Home to Fit You services to assess your parent’s baseline condition is an excellent place to start. I can then steer you toward appropriate senior communities that fit their current and future care needs. If or when that time comes, you will already have essential initial information which will save you time and stress if a move is needed, especially on short notice. Even if you decide never to move your parent, I see it as my privilege to guide anyone in my community through this journey.
I only have one week before my mother is being discharged from rehab. Can you help me find a place for her?
When time is of the essence, it is even more beneficial for you to use my services. With my knowledge and skills as a physical therapist, even on short notice, I will make a thorough assessment of your mother’s care needs and wants. I will then create a list of the most appropriate care facilities for her, which we can visit with a day’s notice. Together we will find the right home for her, based on the profile I create of your mother and my extensive knowledge of the senior care facilities in our area.
My mom lives in Eugene, and my sister lives in Denver, Colorado. My mom wants to move closer to my sister. Can you help us find a place in Denver?
Yes. Helping a family relocate a loved one who needs to move into a senior care community, whether from out of state or to another part of the country, is simply a matter of collaboration.
As a member of OSRAA (Oregon Senior Referral Agency Association), I have many colleagues all over Oregon with whom I have worked. If the relocation is to another state, I will search and interview local agencies to find a senior living advisor with experience and knowledge that are up to my standards, and I will collaborate with them.
My father is on Medicaid. Could you help us find a senior care facility for him?
The law prohibits referral agencies from collecting any fee from clients on Medicaid or from the senior facility that accepts these clients. Under these limitations I am unable to provide my full services at no charge. However, I can offer you and your father a service for an affordable fee paid by the family, not your father.
How can I be sure that you’ll find the perfect place for my parent?
From my extensive experience working with seniors, there is no “perfect” place. Even your parents’ home wasn’t “perfect”. Maybe the location was such that you couldn’t walk to school. Or there was only one bathroom for the six of you. But you had a beautiful garden and very nice neighborhood. Always trade-offs. Once we identify, through my detailed assessment process, the care needs and personal preferences required, together we will look for the best senior living community that has the strengths and advantages you seek.
Who makes the final decision on selecting a senior living community?
You or you and your family will always make the final decision. My goal is to guide you through this often very stressful and overwhelming process by offering the choice of a few senior communities I recommend to be the best fit. I will give you all the information and support you need, but the final decision is always yours.
Why should I choose A Home to Fit You over other senior referral agencies?
Each referral agency offers a different approach to the process of helping seniors find a new home in a senior living community. What I offer is 30 years hands-on experience as a physical therapist in the field of geriatrics. I know the different senior living communities from the inside and I understand in minute detail how to determine the right type of community before we tour any of them.
My assessment process is never conducted exclusively over the phone with a family member. It includes a comprehensive in-person in-depth assessment of the senior which utilizes my expertise and knowledge as a healthcare professional and a former Adult Foster Home owner. This expertise will serve you well, from advising you on how to arrange your new room in a safe way, to how to address family conflicts that may arise from the decision to move your parents to a senior living community.
If, for whatever reason you decided not to choose A Home To Fit You, I highly recommend that you look for another local senior advisor. A non-local advisor, who will not meet with you in person and never visited the communities they recommend, can’t provide you the quality of the service you and your loved one deserve.
What if I’ve already started the search on my own? Can I still work with your agency?
Absolutely! If you contact a senior living community on your own, a referral service would not be able to collect the referral fee from that community, if, at some point, you select them.
You may have contacted some that would fit best or some that are not right for you. After my extensive assessment, I will direct you to ones that will fit you best, which may include ones you have already contacted. However, in this situation, when the community may not pay my fee, before we start this process, I will discuss with you the possibility that the fee for my service may fall on you.
I have a personal question: why did you become a senior living advisor?
As a home health physical therapist, I had patients who needed to move from home into senior care communities. I witnessed how overwhelming and stressful this was for the seniors and their families. I also witnessed those who worked with a non-local advisor who mostly provided them with a list of care facilities but wasn’t there to provide the support they needed in person. I knew that there was a need for a service that they couldn’t find, and I felt that with all of my experience, I could provide that service. I am not a “nationwide service” but a local “neighbor” who knows the local market and connects with the seniors and their families in person.
The gratitude I get from the family, the sense of relief they express, is my true reward.
If something feels uncertain, that’s reason enough to reach out.
You don’t have to have everything figured out before you contact us.
Whether you’re planning ahead or facing something more immediate, this is simply a conversation.
Together, we’ll clarify the next step that feels right.
