Companion Care in Preston, 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 the house on Route 164 last Sunday and found the TV on, lunch untouched, and your dad just sitting there staring at the window. He isn’t sick exactly, not in a way any doctor can point to on a chart. He’s lonely, and the quiet of rural Preston is closing in on him a little more each week. That moment stays with you on the drive home.
Companion care is what fills that gap. A real person shows up on a regular schedule, sits with your parent, shares a meal, takes a walk, plays cards, and keeps the day from going completely flat. It’s not nursing, and it doesn’t need to be. Sometimes company is the whole point.
We’re Private Duty Aides, a nurse-founded home care agency serving Preston and all of New London County. Call us and we’ll talk through what your family actually needs, no forms, no runaround.
Companion care is non-medical support centered on presence, conversation, and light help around the house. A caregiver might arrive in the morning, share breakfast, help with a grocery list, and stay through lunch. There’s no clinical protocol, just a person paying real attention to your parent.
On a typical day, that can mean talking through old photos, taking a slow walk around the yard, running an errand to the Preston stop-and-shop, or just being in the room while your parent reads. It also covers light meal preparation, reminders to take medications (though caregivers don’t administer them), and simple tidying so the house stays manageable. Families in Preston often call us after a parent has come home from William W. Backus Hospital and the discharge planner has cleared them medically but everyone knows the house is too quiet and the routine is gone.
Post-discharge is actually one of the most common starting points we see. Your parent is home, physically stable, but disoriented and a little deflated. A companion caregiver helps rebuild the rhythm of the day gradually, which makes a real difference in how quickly people find their footing again.
Because Private Duty Aides was founded by a working nurse, we brief our companion caregivers on what to watch for even when the assignment isn’t medical. If something looks off, they know how to tell us and we know what to do with that information.
Nurse-founded
Our agency was started by a working nurse who watched families struggle to find help that fit the space between “totally fine” and “needs medical attention.” She built this service around what she saw families actually needing, including parents who were isolated and just needed a steady, reliable presence.
Built specifically for companion care
We don’t treat companion care as a lesser tier. Our caregivers who do this work are matched for it, briefed on what social engagement and light support actually require, and experienced with the particular loneliness that comes from living alone in a rural area like Preston. It’s a specific skill set and we treat it that way.
We stay reachable
Families tell us, again and again, that what breaks down with other agencies is communication. You call, you leave a message, you wait. We answer. If something changes with your parent’s companion care, whether the caregiver is sick, the schedule needs to shift, or you just have a question, you reach a person who can actually help.
Local to Preston and New London County
We know this part of Connecticut. We know how William W. Backus Hospital handles discharges, what the roads look like in January, and what it means for a parent to be out in Preston without family nearby. That local knowledge shapes how we staff and how we respond.
How it works
You tell us what’s going on, we listen. No intake forms to fill out before you’ve spoken to a person, and no pressure to commit before you’re ready. Most families just want to talk through the situation first, and that’s exactly what this call is for.
Matching for companion care isn’t just plugging in whoever is available that shift. We look at personality, shared interests, communication style, and your parent’s particular rhythms. A good match makes the difference between a caregiver your parent tolerates and one they actually look forward to seeing.
For most Preston families we can have someone in place within 48 hours of that first call, and often the same day when the situation is urgent. We don’t make you wait through a long onboarding process when the need is clear.
Once care starts, we stay in contact with you. If your parent’s needs shift, if the schedule needs adjusting, or if you just want an update, you call us and someone answers. You won’t be hunting down information about your own parent’s care.
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 companion care visit might include conversation and social engagement, light meal prep, help with a grocery list or a short errand, reminders about medications, and just being present in the house so the day has some shape. The caregiver won't provide nursing or hands-on personal care like bathing, but they'll handle the kinds of support that make a day feel normal rather than empty. For parents in Preston who live alone, that consistency matters more than people expect.
In most cases we can have a caregiver in place within 48 hours of your call, and often the same day when the discharge is happening quickly and the family is scrambling. William W. Backus Hospital's discharge team can tell you when your parent is medically cleared to go home, but that doesn't mean everything is settled. If you call us the moment you know the discharge date, we'll do everything we can to have someone ready when your parent walks through the door.
Medicare does not cover companion care. It covers skilled nursing and certain therapies under specific conditions, but non-medical companionship and light support fall outside that scope. Some long-term care insurance policies do cover companion care, so it's worth pulling out that policy and checking. Private Duty Aides is private pay, and we're transparent about costs from the first call so there are no surprises.
A home health aide provides hands-on personal care, things like bathing, dressing, grooming, and mobility assistance. Companion care is social and practical support without that physical care component. The distinction matters both for pricing and for matching the right person to your parent's actual needs. If your parent is physically independent but lonely and needs someone to keep them company and help with light tasks, companion care is the right fit.
Yes, and this is something we take seriously. We ask about your parent's interests, their communication style, whether they prefer a quiet presence or someone more talkative, and what a good day looks like for them. We then match based on that, not just on schedule availability. If the first match doesn't feel right after a visit or two, we talk about it and adjust. Getting the relationship right is the whole point of companion care.
We'll contact you as early as possible and arrange a backup caregiver. We don't just cancel and leave you to figure it out. For companion care especially, consistency matters, so we try hard to minimize disruptions and to send someone your parent has met before when we can. You'll always hear from us directly, and we'll always have a plan ready before that visit is supposed to happen.
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No sales pressure. We'll tell you straight if we're not a fit.
Private Duty Aides — Preston, CT
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