Guide to elder care is online

Search for long-term facilities has a new resource in Web version

by Bob Moos

DALLAS - December 18, 2006 - An online version of a popular guidebook to long-term care facilities and services in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the Gilbert Guide, will be available on a subscription basis starting Tuesday.

Since hitting local bookstore shelves in April, the guidebook has been widely used by boomers looking for nursing homes, assisted-living communities or at-home services for their parents.

Jill Gilbert, president and chief executive of Gilbert Guide Inc., said the online version would allow her staff to continuously update its information on hundreds of facilities and services.

"The long-term care industry changes every day - nursing homes get remodeled, new assisted-living communities open, rates change," she said. "Our Web site will reflect all of those developments."

Like the book, the online version will contain reviews of facilities visited by the Gilbert Guide's long-term care experts. Only facilities that meet the publisher's standards of senior care are listed.

A six-month subscription to the online service at www.gilbert guide.com will sell for $49.95.

The Gilbert Guide has carved out a niche among long-term care guidebooks by refusing any advertising from businesses it rates. For that reason, many senior care professionals give it high credibility.

Kay Paggi, a Dallas geriatric care manager, said the Gilbert Guide's online narratives of facilities and services are the first of their kind in the area and are likely to prove popular with Internet-savvy boomers.

The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services' Web site rates long-term care facilities but isn't as descriptive as the Gilbert Guide's reviews, she said.

"A Web tool like this can be a big time-saver for families who have only a short while to find someplace for a parent who has been hospitalized," Ms. Paggi said. "It will help narrow their search."

Ms. Gilbert said the Web site's search tool will allow users to identify the senior care facilities and services nearest their home and create a list of three or four they want to visit in person.

In addition to launching its subscription service, the Gilbert Guide is enhancing the free portion of its Web site by inviting senior care experts to discuss topics including downsizing and hospice.

It also has plans to create a "feedback forum" where anyone may sign in and comment on long-term care facilities and services.

"We want to become the go-to site for senior care," Ms. Gilbert said.

As seen online at DallasNews.com