About Columbus Senior Advisor

A free local advisory service helping Central Ohio families make sense of senior care — not a government agency, not a facility, and not a substitute for medical or legal advice.

Columbus Senior Advisor exists for one reason: finding the right senior care for a parent or spouse in the Columbus metro is confusing, emotional, and full of information that's either outdated, written for a different state, or dressed up to sell you something. We built this site to give families in Franklin, Delaware, Fairfield, Licking, Madison, Pickaway, and Union Counties a straight answer instead — what Ohio actually requires, what a facility actually offers, and what a realistic budget actually looks like, without the sales pressure.

What we do

We help families in three concrete ways. First, we explain the landscape — the practical differences between independent living, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing, and home care, and which of those tends to fit a given situation. Second, we research and describe real facilities across the metro, confirming names, addresses, and the type of care each one provides directly against that operator's own website rather than repeating whatever an aggregator happens to list. Third, we explain the Ohio-specific rules that actually govern this — how the state licenses assisted living, how Medicaid's PASSPORT waiver works, who to call if something looks wrong — because Ohio's rules are not the same as Texas's, Indiana's, or any other state's, and we don't assume they are. The full detail on how we hold ourselves to that standard is on our editorial standards page, which we'd encourage any family to read before trusting anything else on this site.

Who's behind it

Darlene and the rest of our advisor team are local to Central Ohio and spend their days on the phone with families working through exactly this decision — often at 11pm after a hard conversation with a parent, or the morning after a fall. Darlene's role is to listen to your specific situation, walk through what's realistic given your budget and your family's needs, and point you toward facilities and resources that actually fit — not to push you toward a particular community or take a side in a family disagreement. There is no cost to talk with Darlene, and there's no obligation attached to it.

We want to be plain about what we are not. Columbus Senior Advisor is not a government agency, not affiliated with the State of Ohio or any county office, and not a licensed medical, legal, or financial advisor. We don't diagnose conditions, we don't give legal advice about guardianship or estate matters, and we don't manage anyone's finances. When a question falls into one of those areas, our job is to tell you plainly that you need a physician, an elder-law attorney, or a financial planner, and to help you understand what questions to bring to that conversation — not to answer it ourselves.

Where we work

Our coverage area is the Columbus metro: Franklin, Delaware, Fairfield, Licking, Madison, Pickaway, and Union Counties. That includes Columbus itself and its neighborhoods, plus the surrounding cities and townships — Dublin, Westerville, Gahanna, Grove City, Hilliard, Reynoldsburg, Upper Arlington, Bexley, Worthington, New Albany, Pickerington, Powell, and Marysville among them. If your family is searching from outside that footprint, some of our Ohio-specific regulatory and cost information will still be accurate statewide, but our facility research is focused on this metro.

If you have questions about how we work, want to flag something that looks wrong on the site, or are ready to talk through your own family's situation, get in touch or use the chat with Darlene on any page.