Hospice Support Care in Ellington, CT
Non-medical hospice support — homemaker-companion services that complement hospice nursing during a parent's final months at home.
No sales pressure. We'll tell you straight if we're not a fit.
It might have been a Tuesday morning when the hospice nurse finished her visit and drove off down Pinney Street, and you realized you couldn’t leave your father alone for the next eight hours. The hospice team is wonderful, but they come for an hour, maybe two, and then they’re gone. Someone has to be there the rest of the time, sitting with him, keeping him comfortable, making sure he isn’t alone when the hours get long and quiet. That’s exactly where we come in.
We’re Private Duty Aides, a nurse-founded home care agency serving families across Tolland County. We work alongside your hospice team, not instead of them, providing steady, calm presence so your family can breathe a little.
Hospice support care fills the hours that your hospice nurses and social workers simply can’t cover. It means a caregiver is present in your home through the morning, the afternoon, or overnight, keeping your family member comfortable, calm, and accompanied. We help with repositioning, light grooming, gentle conversation, or just sitting quietly in the room so no one is alone.
Day to day, our caregivers assist with personal hygiene at a pace that respects dignity, offer water and small comforts, monitor for changes in condition, and communicate clearly with family members who can’t always be on-site. For families in Ellington whose relative has recently been discharged from Rockville General Hospital under hospice status, we can often begin care within the same day of that transition so there’s no gap between leaving the hospital and having consistent help at home.
Families across Ellington, from the rural stretches near Crystal Lake to the neighborhoods closer to Route 83, often tell us that what they needed most was someone reliable who didn’t need to be managed or instructed every hour. They needed a person who understood what this stage of life looks like and could simply show up and be steady. That’s what we try to be.
Because we were founded by a working nurse, our caregivers are briefed on hospice protocols, understand what to observe and report, and know how to work alongside clinical teams without getting in the way or creating confusion for the family.
Nurse-founded, and it shows
Our agency was started by a working nurse who saw firsthand what families going through end-of-life care at home actually needed. The way we train and brief caregivers reflects that clinical background, not just a checklist.
Built specifically around hospice support
We don’t treat this like a standard companion care shift. Our caregivers who take hospice support assignments have specific experience, and we brief them on your family’s situation, your hospice team’s protocols, and what matters most to your family member.
We pick up when you call
Things change fast in hospice care. If something shifts overnight or your regular caregiver can’t make it, you call us and someone answers. We don’t leave families guessing during the hardest hours.
We know Ellington and Tolland County
We’re familiar with how discharges from Rockville General Hospital typically go, what local hospice agencies operate in this area, and what the roads and distances in Ellington actually mean for scheduling. This isn’t a call center in another state, it’s local people who know the area.
How it works
You tell us what’s happening, who needs care, and what feels most urgent. No intake forms to fill out, no pressure, just a real conversation so we understand your situation.
For hospice support care especially, we don’t just fill a time slot. We think about temperament, experience with end-of-life care, and what your family member actually needs from the person who will be in that room.
Often the same day for urgent situations in Ellington. We understand that when a family is in this moment, waiting days isn’t realistic.
You’re not handed off and forgotten. We check in with you regularly, and if something changes, whether it’s the care needs or the schedule, you call us and we figure it out together.
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
On a typical day, a hospice support caregiver helps with personal hygiene, repositioning for comfort, offering fluids and small snacks if appropriate, and simply being present in the room. They'll track any visible changes in condition and let family members know what they observed during the shift. Mostly it's about keeping the environment calm and making sure your family member is never alone. Our caregivers also take cues from the hospice nursing team so everyone is working in the same direction.
We can often start the same day a family calls us, including on days when someone is coming home from Rockville General. We know that the gap between leaving the hospital and having real help at home can feel terrifying, and we do everything we can to close that gap quickly. Call us as soon as you know a discharge is coming and we'll have a plan ready.
We're a private-pay agency, which means we're not billed through Medicare, Medicaid, or insurance. Some long-term care insurance policies do reimburse for private duty home care, so it's worth reviewing your policy or calling your insurer directly. We're upfront about costs from the first conversation so there are no surprises.
A home health aide typically comes through a Medicare-certified agency and focuses on specific skilled-care tasks ordered by a doctor. Our hospice support caregivers fill the surrounding hours with non-medical presence, comfort, and assistance. We're not replacing the clinical team, we're making sure someone is there between their visits. That continuous presence is what most families tell us they needed most.
Yes, and we take that seriously. When you call, we ask real questions about your family member's personality, what matters to them, what makes them comfortable, and what they don't respond well to. For hospice support care especially, the relationship between caregiver and patient matters a great deal, and we don't just send whoever's available. If a match isn't right, you tell us and we adjust.
We cover the shift. We don't leave a family without care because of a scheduling issue on our end. You'll always hear from us before a shift if something changes, and we'll have someone there. During hospice care, continuity really matters, so we keep backup coverage as part of how we operate rather than an afterthought.
All home care services in Ellington
No sales pressure. We'll tell you straight if we're not a fit.
Private Duty Aides — Ellington, CT
Book a 15-min call