Companion Care in Old Lyme, CT
Non-medical companionship, conversation, and daily activity support for seniors living at home.
No sales pressure. We'll tell you straight if we're not a fit.
You drove out to Old Lyme on a Sunday, walked in, and found your mom sitting in the same chair she was in when you left three days ago. The TV was off. She hadn’t started dinner. She said she was fine, but you knew she wasn’t, and you drove home feeling that weight in your chest. That moment is exactly why companion care exists.
Loneliness does real harm, and your parent doesn’t need a medical diagnosis to deserve company and real help getting through the day. Companion care fills the hours between your visits with a real person, one who shows up consistently, talks with them, helps around the house, and makes sure they’re eating and staying comfortable.
We serve families all across Old Lyme, and we’re ready to talk through what you’re seeing at home and what kind of support would actually help.
Companion care is non-medical support built around company, conversation, and the kind of light daily help that keeps someone’s life running smoothly. It covers things like sitting down for meals together, going for a walk, helping with light housekeeping, running to the grocery store, and simply being present so the day doesn’t feel so empty. It isn’t therapy, and it isn’t nursing, but it matters more than most people expect it to.
Day to day, a companion caregiver in Old Lyme might help your parent start the morning with breakfast, keep the kitchen tidy, drive them to an appointment, or just sit and talk for a few hours in the afternoon. Families across Old Lyme often reach out after a discharge from Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, when their parent is home but clearly not ready to be alone all day, and companion care bridges exactly that gap before more intensive help is needed.
What families in Old Lyme typically ask for is simple: someone reliable who will show up, treat their parent with real warmth, and notice if something seems off. That’s what we build every care plan around, and we start by listening to what you’re seeing at home before we suggest anything.
Because we were founded by a working nurse, our companion caregivers are coached to recognize early warning signs that a family should know about, even when the role itself is non-medical. That training shapes how our team pays attention and how quickly they communicate back to you.
Nurse-founded from the start. Our agency was started by a working nurse who saw, firsthand, how many families caring for a parent dealing with isolation and loneliness had nowhere to turn that actually understood the situation. That experience shaped how we train our team and how we think about non-medical care.
Matched for companion care specifically. We don’t treat companion care as a lesser service. We brief caregivers on your parent’s history, preferences, and personality before the first visit, and we make adjustments if the match isn’t right. Getting this right matters to us.
We answer when you call. When something changes with your parent’s care, you shouldn’t have to leave a voicemail and wait. We stay reachable, we respond, and we don’t disappear once care is in place.
We know Old Lyme and New London County. We understand the discharge process at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, we know the families in this area, and we’re not a distant agency trying to serve a town we’ve never been to. This is the community we work in.
How it works
Why families choose us
Every aide is trained and supervised through an RN’s lens — not just placed and forgotten.
Personality fit matters more than skill on paper. We match for temperament, pace, and patience.
No franchise rotation. You work with the people who run this agency — direct, accessible, accountable.
Most families are matched with a caregiver within 24 to 48 hours. When something shifts at home, we move quickly.
We build a daily structure around your parent’s rhythm — meals, walks, evenings — and protect it.
You hear from us, not just the aide. Updates on appetite, sleep, mood, mobility — the things that matter.
Every caregiver clears a multi-step screening — background check, reference checks, and an in-person interview with our RN founder — before they're ever placed in a home.
Why families trust us
Private Duty Aides is nurse-founded. Every caregiver clears a multi-step screening — a background check, reference checks, and an in-person interview with our RN founder — before they are ever placed in a home. You get the same consistent caregiver, matched by a nurse, not whoever happens to be available.
Common questions
A typical day looks different depending on your parent's routine, but it usually involves conversation, help with meals, light tidying, and maybe an errand or a walk. The caregiver shows up at a consistent time, spends real time with your parent rather than just checking boxes, and stays alert to how they're doing. If your parent enjoys card games or talking through old photos, the caregiver makes space for that. The goal is a day that doesn't feel empty or worrying.
In most cases, we can have a caregiver in place within 48 hours of your first call, and often the same day when the situation is urgent. Post-discharge is one of the most common times families reach out, because the hospital sends someone home and suddenly the house feels very quiet and a little uncertain. Call us as soon as you know the discharge date so we can have everything ready before your parent walks through the door.
Medicare does not cover non-medical companion care, and most standard health insurance plans don't either. If your parent has a long-term care insurance policy, it may cover companion care depending on the terms, and it's worth a call to the insurer to check. We're a private-pay agency, so families pay out of pocket. We're straightforward about costs from the start so there are no surprises.
A home health aide provides hands-on personal care like bathing, dressing, and mobility assistance, and typically operates under a medical plan of care. Companion care is non-medical, focused on company, conversation, light household help, and keeping someone's day going in a safe and comfortable way. Some parents need both, and some genuinely only need the companionship piece right now. We'll help you figure out which applies to your situation.
Yes, and for companion care this is one of the most important things we do. Before the first visit, we talk with you about your parent's personality, their interests, what makes them comfortable, and what kind of energy they do well with. We use that to make a real match, not just assign whoever is available. If the first match doesn't click, we adjust without making it awkward for anyone.
We contact you as soon as we know, and we arrange a backup caregiver rather than simply canceling the visit. We introduce backup caregivers in advance when possible so your parent isn't meeting a stranger on a difficult day. Consistency matters a lot in companion care, and we take schedule disruptions seriously rather than treating them as routine.
Learn more about this service
All home care services in Old Lyme
Companion Care near Old Lyme
No sales pressure. We'll tell you straight if we're not a fit.
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