Ex-Journalist Launches Website to Connect Families to Senior Advocates for Help Finding Assisted Living

Paradise Valley, AZ, April 07, 2016 --(PR.com)-- A veteran journalist has come out of retirement to launch a new website, Tony’s Rolodex (http://www.tonysrolodex.com/), to connect Senior Placement Advocates with families searching for 24/7 long-term Assisted Living or Memory Care.

“I felt so strongly that Senior Placement Advocates are better for families than Senior Housing Referral websites that I created this service to help families find trusted Advocates in their communities,” said Tony Polk, a one-time reporter for the Associated Press and the Rocky Mountain News, and co-author of “Gunning for Justice” (Doubleday, 1984) with Wyoming lawyer Gerry Spence, the champion of the downtrodden.

Here is a comparison of the services of Tony’s Rolodex Advocates vs Senior Housing Referral websites.

Polk, launching first in Arizona and Florida, is scouring the country to find and vet trusted Senior Placement Advocates for families. Tony’s Rolodex Advocates:

* Have health or senior care backgrounds (or long placement experience)

* Make personal and repeated visits to assess senior housing options in their communities

* Conduct face-to-face assessments with families and prospective residents (when possible)

* Accompany families on guided tours of facilities

* Pass background checks

* Receive regular referrals from local healthcare professionals.

“The local Doctors and discharge planners know the Advocates they can trust,” said Polk.

Tony’s Rolodex Advocates have spent months, even years, visiting facilities in their local community, assessing them for quality of care and management, cost, cleanliness, activities, culture, care specialties, resident mix and evaluations by state inspectors.

Advocates then meet face-to-face (when possible) with families and seniors to understand health, budgetary and family considerations. Only after gaining that personal understanding do they make informed placement recommendations and accompany families on tours of facilities under consideration to show them the pros & cons of each. They also negotiate for the best terms and rates.

Advocates and Referral Websites are paid by the facilities they refer to; their services are free to families.

“Senior Placement Advocates are great allies because they have deep knowledge of the options in your community and by getting to know your family, they can match you to the right facility,” Polk said.

After leaving journalism, Polk built and sold several businesses. He was drawn to senior care after caring for his own parents at the end of their lives. Since retirement he has served on the Board of Directors of Engage, the California non-profit building Senior Artist Colonies in California, and volunteered with a wonderful Phoenix-based nonprofit called Duet, driving homebound seniors to doctors appointments and shopping trips. He and his wife live in Paradise Valley, AZ.

To find a trusted Advocate, click here.

To become one of Tony’s Advocates, click here.