Hospice Support Care in New Canaan, 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.
You were sitting in the small waiting room off the oncology wing at Stamford Hospital when the doctor used the word “hospice,” and somehow the drive back up Route 124 into New Canaan felt completely different than the drive down. The house looked the same. The town looked the same. But everything had shifted. That moment, when you realize the goal has changed from curing to comfort, is one of the hardest anyone faces. You don’t have to figure out what comes next alone.
Hospice support care at home means someone is there when the hospice nurse isn’t. It means your parent isn’t alone at 2 in the afternoon while you’re trying to hold your job together, and it means the person sitting with them actually knows what this stage of life looks like. We work alongside hospice teams, not around them, and we show up for the hours in between.
Hospice support care fills the hours that hospice nurses and social workers can’t. A hospice team might visit a few times a week, but the rest of the day still happens. Our aides are there for bathing, dressing, toileting, and repositioning, but also for the quieter work: sitting close, reading aloud, making sure the room is calm, and noticing when something seems off. Comfort isn’t one single thing. It’s a dozen small things done right, repeatedly.
For families in downtown New Canaan, Silvermine, and South New Canaan, the practical picture often looks like this: a spouse who is exhausted and needs to sleep, adult children who are coming in from out of state and need someone they can trust to be there in between visits, and a person in their final weeks who deserves steady, familiar company. We help with meals if they’re still eating, with light housekeeping, and with the kind of presence that lets family members actually be family instead of just caregivers. Many families come to us directly after a discharge from Stamford Hospital, when the hospice team is just getting organized and the gap in support feels the widest.
Because Private Duty Aides was founded by a working nurse, the people we place understand medical context without overstepping it. Our aides know how to work beside a hospice nurse, not in their way, and they know what to watch for and when to call someone. That background shapes everything about how we approach this service.
Nurse-founded
Our agency was started by a working nurse who saw firsthand what families navigating end-of-life care at home actually needed: someone with clinical judgment behind the matching, not just a staffing algorithm.
Built around this service
Hospice support requires experience, steadiness, and the ability to sit with hard moments without flinching. We brief every caregiver before they walk in the door, and we match on temperament, not just task lists.
We stay reachable
When something changes at 9 pm on a Tuesday, you call us and we answer. This stage of care moves fast. You need a team that moves with it, not one you have to track down.
We know this area
We know Fairfield County, the discharge process at Stamford Hospital, and what families in New Canaan are dealing with. That local knowledge shortens the learning curve when time is short.
How it works
You tell us what’s happening. No intake forms, no hold music, no pressure. We listen to your situation and ask the questions that actually matter for hospice support specifically.
End-of-life care requires a particular kind of person. We match based on experience with this stage of life, temperament, and your parent’s specific personality, not just who’s available on the schedule.
For New Canaan families dealing with an urgent situation, we often place a caregiver the same day. We know this doesn’t wait.
We stay in contact with you throughout. When things change, and they do change, we adjust. You’ll never be left wondering whether someone noticed.
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 where someone is in the hospice process, but in general it includes personal care like bathing, dressing, and repositioning, light housekeeping and meal preparation if the person is still eating, and a steady, calm presence throughout the day. Our aides also help with medication reminders within their scope, and they coordinate with the hospice nurse by sharing observations and flagging anything that seems to have changed. What matters most is that someone is there, paying attention, so the family doesn't have to wonder.
We can often have a caregiver in place the same day or within 24 hours of your call, especially for families in the New Canaan area coming directly from a Stamford Hospital discharge. The gap between leaving the hospital and getting the hospice team organized is exactly where people feel most exposed. We know that gap well, and we try to close it fast. Call us as soon as you know discharge is coming and we'll have everything ready.
Medicare's hospice benefit covers the hospice team itself, which includes nurses, social workers, chaplains, and some aide hours through the hospice agency. It does not cover private-duty aides who provide additional support outside those hours. We are private pay only, which means families pay directly. Some long-term care insurance policies do cover private-duty home care, so it's worth reviewing your policy or calling your insurer to ask.
A home health aide typically works under a medical care plan focused on recovery or management of a condition, often covered by Medicare after a hospital stay. Hospice support care is focused specifically on comfort and quality of life at end of life. Our aides understand how to work within the hospice framework, how to communicate with the hospice nurse, and how to provide the kind of presence that makes this stage of life as peaceful as possible. The clinical foundation of our agency means this distinction isn't just semantic for us.
Yes, and for hospice support this matching matters more than almost any other service we provide. We ask about your parent's personality, their history, what calms them and what doesn't, whether they want quiet or conversation, and what kind of presence feels right for your family. We then find someone whose experience and temperament actually fits. If the first match doesn't feel right, we'll adjust, but we take the time upfront to get it right.
We keep a backup in mind from the start, because we know that consistency matters and that gaps in care at this stage are not acceptable. If your regular caregiver is sick or has an emergency, we contact you directly and arrange a replacement we trust. We don't leave you to figure it out. You'll hear from us before you're wondering what happened.
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No sales pressure. We'll tell you straight if we're not a fit.
Private Duty Aides — New Canaan, CT
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