Senior placement is the free matchmaking layer between a family that needs care and the licensed communities that provide it. Instead of Googling names one at a time and cold-calling a dozen sales offices, you talk to one advisor who already knows the inventory, the pricing, and which openings actually fit.
Here's the process broken into its real steps - not marketing language, the actual sequence DC Senior Advisor runs for a DC-metro family.
The actual sequence, step by step
- Intake call. We ask about the person needing care - mobility, memory, medical needs, current living situation - plus budget range, timeline, and which of the District, Maryland, or Virginia you'd prefer (or whether that's flexible).
- Options review. Using that intake, we pull from our vetted network and narrow to communities that are licensed for the right level of care, priced within range, and have real availability - not just a waitlist.
- Shortlist and scheduling. You get one to three options with pricing, and we set up tours around your schedule, not the community's sales calendar.
- Tour and decide. You visit, ask questions, and compare. We're available to debrief after each tour if you want a second opinion.
- Move-in support. Once you pick, we help track the paperwork and timing so nothing slips between "yes" and move-in day.
How long it actually takes
Non-urgent placements typically run 7-14 days from first call to move-in once a family is ready to act; urgent situations - a hospital discharge, a caregiver crisis - can compress to 48-72 hours when needed. The bottleneck is almost never us; it's usually how quickly a family can settle on budget and location.
What we need from you to move fast
- An honest budget range, including what benefits (VA, Medicaid, LTC insurance) might apply
- A realistic picture of current care needs - not the needs from a year ago
- Which jurisdictions are realistic given proximity to family
Why one point of contact beats calling communities yourself
Calling communities directly means repeating the same intake story to a dozen different sales offices, each of whom is naturally motivated to fill their own beds rather than find your best fit. Working through one advisor who already knows current availability, pricing, and license status across all three jurisdictions collapses what could be weeks of scattered calls into a single organized process - and you only have to explain the situation once.
