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DocWife Posted February 2020

Is this site associated with “A Place For Mom?”

If so, listen up. A Place For Mom will help you find a place for your loved one. I have used them. There is no charge, because THE FACILITY YOU CHOOSE TAKES A COMMISSION. They do not give you an opinion on the proposed facilities they offer. They factor in your geographic area, the size place you want, and other information you give them about your search. They do NOT tell you about any violations the facilities have been cited for. This is crucial information you MUST find for yourself. Recently, the AJC, our newspaper in Atlanta, did a year long investigation into all the facilities in Georgia as well as the DCH, the organization responsible for reporting violations. You can now Google “AJC-Unprotected” to find all the articles that were written. They even created a new data base with a listing of all the facilities and their violations so you can find out the true story on them. The president of the DCH, “Department of Community Health”, just enacted a rule that requires all the facilities to put their violations for the last 18 months on their own websites. This is huge! Hopefully other states will follow suit. DIG DEEP. You don’t know what really goes on unless you live in one of these places. One more piece of advice. Put a camera in the room of your loved one. You wouldn’t believe what I have caught. Please don’t just rely on a list from A Place For Mom or similar companies. They are in it for the commission.

DocWife Feb 2020
Send help,
Yes, we are still not happy. Here is the current state of affairs. The food is akin to what you would be served in a high school cafeteria. If you push your pendant for help, it could be as long as 40 minutes to an hour or never before someone comes to check on you. The trash doesn’t get emptied on a regular basis. The bed is never made. The room gets a lousy cleaning. During the holidays, it wasn’t cleaned for 3 weeks. The activities are printed, but the director sometimes doesn’t show up or they are cancelled. Most of the activities don’t cost any money (to the facility), so they get pretty boring. Many of the caregivers have a sour attitude. There have been fires and floods. We almost never have a fire drill. The elevators routinely malfunction and are not inspected as called for by law. (The facility was just fined $250 for that after a few residents reported to the state). There is currently a lawsuit pending over a resident in memory care who was allowed to be bitten all over her body by ants. She subsequently died. Would you like for your loved one to live in a place like this? It’s beautiful and considered the Creme de la Creme in the city. Who would have known? The problem is, you don’t know if you are moving from the frying pan into the fire until it’s too late. The facilities are not going to tell you about these problems. And most of the residents can’t remember what they had for lunch five minutes ago. Moving is stressful, exhausting, and expensive. Who wants to keep hopping around and paying that $1000-$2000 or more non refundable “community fee?” Please read the articles written by our local newspaper. Just Google AJC Unprotected. It’s time for all of us to contact our state legislators and demand better care for our seniors.

Sendhelp Feb 2020
You have lived in 3 facilities and are still unhappy?
That is a scary state of affairs, imo.

I have family living in an AL facility.

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DocWife Feb 2020
To answer “send help”, yes we are in a facility that has a relationship with A Place For Mom. This is our third facility. The first we found in our neighborhood. The second was recommended directly by A Place For Mom. The third I found myself. If you try calling APFM and asking them for a list of places that have bistros, they will not give it to you unless you give them your name and contact info. The problem is that the facilities all spend a fortune on their marketing which is pure BS. They will not tell you about violations they have been cited for. They are supposed to keep a book with this list readily accessible to the residents, their families, and the public. But even if you ask for it, they come up with excuses on why they can’t show it. Until the database created by the AJC was debeloped, it was nearly impossible to navigate or even find the website for the DCH. After we left the second facility we were in, I found out that the recently fired Director was arrested for absconding with $8,000 ( which she used to buy jewelry). The bookkeeper (who covered for her) was doing drugs every day, and the maintenance employee is now In Prison for raping a child. These were just some of the issues we experienced. There were many reported violations that we did not know about before we moved in. But APFM did not tell us about any of them. I believe that these companies that are helping families find an appropriate place for their loved one have a responsibility to notify the families of the violations so that we can make informed decisions.
I live with my husband ( who has dementia ) because I have seen and heard too much. I do not have any cognitive decline, so I see and hear everything that goes on. I will never leave him by himself. I know this is not an option for many, but please, do your homework. Check the DCH website for violations, get a camera for the room, talk to the residents who still have their minds. Don’t be swayed by the beautiful architecture, the landscaping, and the total BS you will get on your tour. I am living this! I know what goes on. And as the AJC articles say, the problems are system wide. They talked to residents, families, employees, legislators, management of the facilities, and the DCH for over a year. Their report is shocking. We owe our elderly more than what the current corrupt system is providing.

MelbyJ Feb 2020
Thanks for the info - Glad to know as so many have been "scammed" by A Place for Mom who often gets the first month or two of the rent we pay for our loved one. The more a company pays the more they get recommended! Call the same number several times and you will get different places depending on the commission they will receive to get you into that facility.

Riverdale Feb 2020
I certainly never heard about my comments being made public associated with my name but then I may have not been used.

Just so the site is really about people who come here with no strings attached!!!!!

Isthisrealyreal Feb 2020
Alva, a place for mom doesn't do what your brother experienced.

They get your information, call to find out how much money you have, if it is not enough they try to guilt you into pulling from your own retirement account to make up the difference for your loved one, using horrid tactics. Then when you tell them no ,they send out your private information to all the facilities they have agreements with and you get to tell all of them to leave you alone.

They also sell all of our information from this forum, they use our posts or their version of our posts for articles and use our screen names to give us credit for what was said, whether we actually said it or not.

Before anyone goes off on me read the current terms and conditions and privacy policies. We all agree by being here.

We are making them money.

Sendhelp Feb 2020
DocWife,
Are you living in an assisted living facility? And was it recommended by A Place for Mom?

worriedinCali Feb 2020
Yes this site is owned by APFM and their business model is unethical. And it’s APFM that takes the commission, not the facility they refer to you. Their “advisors” have no training or Background in geriatrics yet they refer you to specific contracted facilities. And APFM receives thousands of dollars from the facility if the person they refer is placed there. This means they will only refer to the facilities they are contracted with. So you will never hear about all the facilities in your area. The best places may be not be contracted with APFM so you will never hear about them.
Their advisors probably haven’t even expected the facilities they are recommending either.

AlvaDeer Feb 2020
There many that do this work, not just the company you mentioned. Personally I know many people who have been VERY helped by this service. My brother used it when his then partner, now friend, needed to be placed. They were driven to facilities, toured them, were told quickly what places were more right because of what they had or didn't have, and etc. You DO have to give some financial information; some don't wish to share that. Because the facilities want to know if they want YOU. It is after all a business. They didn't at that time have a car, and they needed help getting to places. You should always do your own research when it comes down to final choices. And yes, the companies are ALL paid by the facilities. They can come to seem kind of like vultures, or as my bro came to call some he didn't care for "the corporate suits". So it is always in this and anything else in the world about gathering information.
As to the forum. All internet and web sites and pages are able to stay up and do the work they do (in this case providing a forum to us to question and get answers, sometimes just to vent when we need it) by getting advertisers on their site. In the case of the forum the ads are on the right and it is absolutely clear that they are ads and you have a personal choice to use or not use any services, and more to explore any services.
There is much you cannot know if you don't ask. And you are correct that in this as in anything else there is much you learn later when you are THERE. That is as normal as anything, say, buying a house, when you find leaks and cracks everywhere that first year.
Good luck. It is unfortunately a Military Industrial Complex now, and even our schools are run by consultants and money makers. American still has that "Frontier mentality" in which you just have to follow the money.

cwillie Feb 2020
The facility PAYS a commission. Facilities hire A Place For Mom to sell their accommodations, so of course APFM is only going to include those facilities they have a contract with.

And to answer your question, yes, AgingCare is owned by APFM.

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