Hospice Support Care in North 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 with your father at your family’s kitchen table off Route 44 when the hospice nurse pulled you aside and said, gently but plainly, that he had weeks rather than months. The drive back from Sharon Hospital a few days earlier had already changed something in you. Now you’re trying to figure out how to be present for him, keep the house running, and still sleep at night. We can help carry some of that weight.
Private Duty Aides provides hospice support care for families in North Canaan and throughout Litchfield County. We work alongside your hospice nursing team, not around them, so nothing falls through the cracks and your father is never alone when he doesn’t want to be.
Hospice support care fills the hours between hospice nurse visits. When a nurse comes once or twice a day, there are still twenty or more hours left. We’re there for those hours, making sure your person is comfortable, clean, and not alone. We help with personal care, positioning, light meals if they’re still eating, and quiet companionship when that’s what’s needed most.
For families in North Canaan, the practical reality is that Sharon Hospital is nearby but the care at home still depends on you. After a discharge or a transition to home hospice, families often find themselves fielding more than they expected. We step in to handle the physical day-to-day so you can step back into your role as family. That might mean bathing assistance in the morning, sitting with your parent while you run an errand, or overnight support so you can actually sleep.
We also work directly with your hospice nursing team. If the nurse leaves instructions, we follow them. If something changes between visits, we document it and communicate it. You’re not managing two separate teams in two separate worlds.
Because Private Duty Aides was founded by a working nurse, our approach to hospice support is grounded in clinical awareness. That matters here specifically because the line between comfort care and a medical concern can be subtle, and our caregivers know how to recognize it and who to call.
Nurse-founded. Our founder was a working nurse who sat with families at exactly these moments. She built this agency because she saw what end-of-life care at home actually requires and what was missing. That foundation shapes every decision we make.
Matched for this service specifically. We don’t assign a caregiver and hope for the best. For hospice support, we brief every caregiver on your person’s condition, preferences, and the hospice team’s plan before the first visit.
We stay reachable. If something shifts during care, you call us and someone answers. You’re not leaving a voicemail with an agency that gets back to you in 24 hours when the situation is happening right now.
We know Litchfield County. We know how Sharon Hospital’s discharge process works, we know how rural North Canaan families are often managing care across distance, and we show up reliably in this part of Connecticut.
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 might include help with a morning bath or wash, repositioning for comfort, preparing a small meal or drink if your person is still eating, and sitting quietly with them during the afternoon. In the evening it might mean helping them settle for the night and making sure any comfort measures from the hospice nurse are in place. We follow your person's pace, not a rigid schedule.
We can often start the same day you call, and almost always within 48 hours. When a family calls us from Sharon Hospital or shortly after getting home, we treat that as urgent and move accordingly. We don't put North Canaan families on a waiting list when time is short.
We are private pay only, so Medicare and most insurance plans don't cover our services directly. Medicare's hospice benefit does cover the hospice nursing team, medications, and certain medical equipment, but it generally doesn't pay for the kind of daily hands-on aide support we provide. Some long-term care insurance policies do cover private-pay home care, so it's worth checking your policy. We're happy to give you a clear picture of costs upfront so there are no surprises.
A home health aide typically works under a Medicare-certified home health agency and focuses on medically ordered tasks like wound care monitoring or therapy exercises. Our hospice support caregivers focus on comfort, personal care, companionship, and presence during end-of-life. We're not replacing the hospice nursing team. We're filling the hours in between, which are often the hardest hours for families to manage alone.
Yes, and this is something we take seriously. Before we assign anyone, we talk with you about your parent's personality, what calms them, what bothers them, whether they want quiet or conversation, and any care-specific needs from the hospice team. We don't send whoever is available. We find someone who will actually be a good fit in the room.
We always have a backup plan and we communicate it to you before it becomes a crisis. If your regular caregiver is sick or unavailable, we find a replacement and brief them on your person's situation before they walk in the door. You won't be scrambling to figure it out yourself, and you won't have a stranger showing up without context.
All home care services in North Canaan
No sales pressure. We'll tell you straight if we're not a fit.
Private Duty Aides — North Canaan, CT
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