The Value of Placement Agencies or Senior Housing Advisors

By guest author Julie Ouellette, Owner NW Senior Resources

Julie Ouellette

NW Senior Resources has been around since late 2007. It was started by Nancy Raske. I went to work for Nancy about 3 years before she retired and then I purchased the company in late 2015. Kay Loeffl joined me in 2016. It has been our goal to maintain and expand upon the high ethics that Nancy started the business with.
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I have been in the Senior Housing Industry since 1999​. I began my career as a marketing director, I then took a regional marketing position, I helped open a home care agency and I went into regional operations for a mid-sized senior housing company. 

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Kay Loeffl

I believe my years of experience have served me well on the placement side of the industry. Since I was a long-term care community sales and marketing director and a former administrator, I know how important it is to find the appropriate options for clients. We also understand why one care home might work for a specific client and another care home won’t. We believe it is our job to advocate for our clients as well as to advocate for you, the provider. ​

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We believe it is our job to advocate for our clients as well as to advocate for you, the provider. 

Working with a Placement Professional

Referral Agencies or Senior Housing Advisors can be helpful in many ways to adult care home providers. Our first step is to pre-qualify the client so we make sure it is an appropriate referral. We do our best to determine which homes can meet specific care needs. Some of our intake questions might include the following:

• Care requirements
• Cognitive abilities
• Safety needs
• Social desires
• Financial ability
• Location desired
• Communication or language needs
• Is an all-male or all-female home needed?
• Nighttime care needs

If someone is an insulin-dependent diabetic, we look for homes that are willing to assist with the insulin shots. We ask the client or family what is important to them in a new home. For example, if someone hopes for a home with children or pets in it, that is what we look for. We also ask about the financial ability of our clients. If they only have a year's worth of private pay funds, we look for locations that are willing to work with those terms. 

Senior Housing Advisors are a great resource for families to start their search. We have several referral sources that send folks our way. Hospitals, communities, skilled nursing facilities, past clients, and more, regularly send us folks in need of assistance.

​We help educate families on the many positive aspects of care homes. We help them understand what a safe and positive environment it can be for their loved ones. I often say that care home residents become members of the household's family.  Many people don’t understand how care homes operate. We explain this and sometimes have to dispel incorrect notions. ​We share how we have had our own family members in care homes and we’re always grateful for the tender loving care our family members received. We often point out that care homes have the best staffing ratios in the industry. 

We share how we have had our own family members in care homes and we’re always grateful for the tender loving care our family members received.​

Because we all get multiple calls each month from folks seeking help, we are able to bring valuable referrals to you. We know how busy you are so by doing the prequalification work, we only bring tours that should be viable potential residents.

We review provider records with DHS. If a provider has a clean record, we will readily refer to them. If there are questions about violations on a record, we may call the provider to see if there is a reasonable explanation for it. We hope you understand when we call about violations, we aren’t pointing fingers, we simply want to hear your perspective on things. We coach our clients on how to interpret violations as well. 

Posting Your Vacancies

We enjoy being a member of the Oregon Senior Referral Agency Association (OSRAA). It has its benefits. OSRAA  provides training programs for our members. We receive education on disease processes such as dementia or Parkinson’s. We have had speakers discussing funding programs, ethics, changes in laws or rules and regulations, and more.

It is an expectation for OSRAA members to meet certain standards to be a member.  We also all work really well together. In fact, When one of our members has a tough client, we might email the whole group asking for suggestions based on a brief description of the individual’s needs. These emails or phone calls between members happen weekly if not daily. This collaboration again allows us to bring these individuals to the homes that are best suited to meet those needs. 

If you wish to let us know about your openings, please go to OSRAA.com and post your vacancies. This reaches all OSRAA members. We can easily access the information anytime we wish. We also get an automatic email every Tuesday showing any vacancies that have been posted that week. It isn’t necessary to post vacancies more than once per week but you are certainly welcome to. Many of us look at the weekly email when looking for clients. We often call the homes that have reported vacancies first - before calling others. 

We know you all work incredibly hard to take care of the residents in your homes. We appreciate what you do more than we can say.

We enjoy meeting adult care homeowners and staff, and I think we learn from one another every day. We enjoy having good relationships with providers. We know you all work incredibly hard to take care of the residents in your homes. We appreciate what you do more than we can say. 

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Author

Julie Ouellette is owner of NW Senior Resources. To learn more about NW Senior Resources, placement agencies, and senior housing advisors, please email Julie at julie@nwseniorresources.com. Be sure to visit their website and like them on Facebook.