Companion Care in Woodstock, 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 Woodstock on a Sunday afternoon and found your dad sitting in the same chair he’d been in since Thursday, the television on, a cold cup of coffee on the side table. He said he was fine. He always says he’s fine. But something in that quiet house on a winter afternoon told you he wasn’t, and that visit has been sitting with you ever since.
Companion care is the answer a lot of families here reach for when the problem isn’t medical, it’s just that a person needs company, routine, and someone who shows up. We talk with you about exactly what your parent’s days look like, and we find someone who fits, not just someone who’s available.
Private Duty Aides is a nurse-founded, private-pay agency serving Woodstock and all of Windham County. Call us and we’ll talk through what you’re seeing at home and figure out together whether companion care makes sense right now.
Companion care covers the hours in the day that feel emptiest: the morning coffee nobody shares, the afternoon that stretches without a plan, the errand that hasn’t happened because driving stopped being safe. A companion aide is there for conversation, light meal prep, help around the house, and accompaniment, whether that means a walk, a trip to the pharmacy, or simply sitting at the kitchen table while your parent eats lunch.
For Woodstock families, companion care often comes into focus after a hospital stay at Day Kimball Hospital. Someone comes home quieter than they left, less interested in doing things, and the house starts to feel too big. Our aides provide the daily human contact that keeps a person oriented and engaged, and they notice when something seems off before it becomes a crisis. Families in all areas of Woodstock, from the town center to the rural roads further out, use this service to fill the gaps between family visits.
Day-to-day, companion care can include light housekeeping, medication reminders (not administration), reading aloud, playing cards, accompanying to appointments, and helping keep a general sense of structure to the week. It’s not clinical, but it matters every bit as much as clinical care for someone whose main struggle is feeling alone. Because Private Duty Aides was founded by a working nurse, our approach to companion care includes real intake about what your parent’s baseline looks like, so the aide who walks through the door already understands who they’re there for.
Nurse-founded from the start
Our founder is a working nurse who watched families struggle to find meaningful support for a parent who didn’t need medical care but couldn’t safely or happily be alone. She built this agency around that exact gap. The intake process, the matching, the follow-up, all of it reflects what she saw families actually need, not what’s easiest to provide.
Our approach to companion care is specific
We brief every companion aide before the first visit. They know your parent’s name, their background, what they like to talk about, and what the household routine looks like. That first visit isn’t an awkward introduction, it’s a continuation of a conversation we already had on your behalf.
We stay reachable
If your regular aide calls in sick, if your parent’s needs shift, or if something just doesn’t feel right, you call us and we answer. Companion care situations can change quickly, and you need an agency that treats your call like it matters, because it does.
We know Woodstock and Windham County
We understand the discharge process at Day Kimball Hospital, the distances involved in getting to and from appointments in a rural county, and the particular way families out here tend to hold things together alone for too long before asking for help. We’re not importing a generic service into your town. We’re here.
How it works
You tell us what’s going on at home. No intake forms, no sales process. We listen to your situation, ask a few questions, and tell you honestly whether companion care is the right fit or whether something else might serve better.
For companion care specifically, personality and fit matter more than almost any other service. We look at your parent’s interests, temperament, and daily rhythm, and we match accordingly, not just by schedule availability.
For most Woodstock families, we can begin within two days of that first call. If someone has just returned home from Day Kimball Hospital and the situation is urgent, we work to start the same day. You shouldn’t have to wait long when the need is real.
After care begins, we don’t disappear. We check in with you regularly so you know how visits are going, and if anything changes with your parent’s situation or needs, you call us and we adjust. You’re never left wondering what’s happening.
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 visit might include making and sharing a meal, light tidying, a walk or a drive to run an errand, conversation, and helping keep the day from feeling formless. Some clients want someone to read with them or play cards. Others mostly want company while they do their own things, just knowing someone else is in the house. We ask about all of this before the first visit so the aide shows up knowing what a good day looks like for your parent specifically.
In most cases we can have someone in place within 48 hours of your call, and for urgent post-discharge situations we often start the same day. If you know a discharge is coming, calling us a day or two before your parent leaves Day Kimball gives us the best chance of having the right person lined up the moment they get home. The transition home is when isolation and confusion tend to set in fastest, and we take that timing seriously.
Medicare does not cover non-medical companion care, and most private insurance policies don't either. Long-term care insurance sometimes covers it depending on the policy, so it's worth checking yours if you have it. We are a private-pay agency, which means families pay out of pocket. We're upfront about costs from the first call so there are no surprises, and we'll tell you exactly what a realistic plan would cost for your parent's situation.
A home health aide provides hands-on personal care like bathing, dressing, and help with mobility, and in some cases works under a medical order. A companion aide focuses on presence, conversation, light household tasks, and accompanying someone through their day without physical or clinical care. Many people start with companion care and add personal care later as needs grow. If you're not sure which applies to your parent's situation, we'll help you figure that out on the first call.
Yes, and for companion care this is the most important part of what we do. We ask about your parent's background, interests, sense of humor, how they feel about strangers, and what kind of company actually helps them versus what makes them retreat. Then we match based on all of that, not just who's available on a given schedule. If the first match isn't working after a couple of visits, you tell us and we try again without any awkwardness about it.
We keep you informed as soon as we know, and we work to find a substitute who's been briefed on your parent's situation rather than sending a stranger cold. For companion care especially, continuity matters, so we do everything we can to minimize disruption and to use people your parent has at least met before. You won't find out a caregiver isn't coming by them simply not showing up. We call you.
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All home care services in Woodstock
No sales pressure. We'll tell you straight if we're not a fit.
Private Duty Aides — Woodstock, CT
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