Free Consulting Services

Hiring a therapeutic placement consultant can be a stressful process. If you’re at the point where you’re being directed to hire a professional to help you, it’s likely you’ve accessed all local resources without success. It could be an emergency, or it could be a urgent situation that will escalate to an emergency if not addressed sooner. How can you justify the fee to hire a consultant? There’s a lot of thought that goes into this decision. What you absolutely want to focused on is making sure you’re hiring someone who is independent.

If a consulting service says its “free to parents” and that they also refer to only reputable programs, stop yourself right there and think. If it’s free to parents, how are these consultants getting paid? You guessed it – by programs. A program that is paying a consultant to help families pick programs will most likely be expecting these consultants to refer a certain number of families to those exact programs. This isn’t fee-splitting, and it may not be patient brokering, but it doesn’t feel good either way you look at it.

How can a parent trust a consultant to help them if the consultant is working for the program? Truly, you can’t. You may as well be speaking directly with the program about enrollment. There are no unbiased program option recommendations from that consultant. Be weary. Ask questions to ensure who you are working with has your best interest in mind, not a program’s.

Steer clear!

For questions or comments contact Joanna.