Hospice Support Care in Old Saybrook, 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 parking lot of the Old Saybrook train station when the hospice nurse called to say there wasn’t much time left, and you realized you couldn’t be in two places at once. The house on Chalker Beach Road needed someone there overnight, but you had kids, a job, a two-hour drive. That moment, when you understood you needed help and didn’t know where to find it, is exactly when families call us. We’re Private Duty Aides, and we work alongside hospice teams right here in Old Saybrook to make sure someone is always present, steady, and caring for the person you love.
Hospice Support Care means having a trained aide present in the home to provide comfort, physical care, and quiet companionship during the final chapter of someone’s life. We help with personal hygiene, repositioning, light housekeeping, and preparing small meals or drinks if the person is still taking them. Mostly, we’re there so the person isn’t alone and so family members can step back, rest, and be present as family rather than as caregivers.
Families across Old Saybrook, from the quiet neighborhoods near the Lieutenant River to the homes along the shoreline, often come to us right after a transition from Middlesex Hospital. The hospice team handles the medical side, and we handle everything else: the 2 a.m. check-ins, the gentle conversation, the small dignities that matter enormously. We coordinate directly with hospice nurses so nothing falls through the gaps between visits.
Private Duty Aides was founded by a working nurse, and that matters here more than anywhere else. Our founder has sat with families in this exact situation and knew that the difference between a difficult death and a peaceful one often comes down to who is in the room. That understanding shapes how we hire, how we train, and how we match caregivers to this specific kind of work.
Nurse-founded. Our founder is a working nurse who watched families in end-of-life situations struggle to find aides who understood the pace, the emotional weight, and the physical reality of this work. She built this agency to fix that gap, and hospice support is where that foundation shows most clearly.
Matched for this work specifically. Not every aide is suited for end-of-life care, and we don’t pretend otherwise. We brief caregivers on your family’s situation before the first visit, and we only send someone who has experience and genuine steadiness for this kind of presence.
We answer when you call. When something changes, and in hospice care things change, you should be able to reach a real person immediately. We stay reachable because we know that a voicemail at the wrong moment is not acceptable in this situation.
We know Middlesex County. We’re familiar with how discharge coordination works at Middlesex Hospital, how hospice teams in this area operate, and how families in Old Saybrook are navigating these decisions. That local knowledge cuts down on wasted time when time is what you’re short on.
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
On a typical day, a hospice support aide handles personal care like bathing, oral hygiene, and repositioning to prevent discomfort. They keep the immediate environment tidy, prepare light food or drinks if the person is still taking them, and sit with the person so they're not alone. They talk, play quiet music if that's welcome, or simply stay present. The goal is dignity and comfort, not tasks for the sake of tasks.
We can usually have someone in place within 24 to 48 hours of your first call, and for urgent situations following a Middlesex Hospital discharge we often move faster than that. Call us as soon as you know a discharge is coming, even if the date isn't confirmed yet, and we'll start the matching process so we're ready to move when you are. We'd rather be prepared and waiting than scrambling when you need us most.
Private Duty Aides is a private-pay agency, which means we're not billed through Medicare, Medicaid, or standard health insurance. The hospice benefit through Medicare does cover certain services, but it typically doesn't cover the extended hours of aide presence that families need. Many families pay out of pocket, use long-term care insurance if they have it, or combine resources to cover the hours that matter most. We're happy to talk through what coverage might apply to your situation.
A home health aide typically works on a care plan focused on rehabilitation or managing a chronic condition, visiting for scheduled hours a few times a week. Hospice Support Care is different in purpose. We're not trying to improve a medical outcome. We're providing steady, present, comfort-focused care during a terminal illness, working alongside the hospice team rather than replacing it. The pace, the emotional tone, and the skills involved are genuinely different, and we select and prepare our caregivers with that in mind.
Yes, and this is one of the things we take most seriously. Before we place anyone, we ask you real questions about your parent's personality, their history, what kind of presence makes them comfortable, and what would feel wrong. We then brief the caregiver on those specifics before the first visit. If after the first day or two the match doesn't feel right, you tell us and we make a change. Getting this right matters more than any other part of the process.
We keep backup coverage in place because in hospice care there's no such thing as a shift that simply doesn't happen. If your regular caregiver is sick or unavailable, we contact you directly, explain the situation, and send someone we've already briefed on your family. You won't be left scrambling on your own. We also make sure any fill-in caregiver has the relevant background on your parent before they walk through the door.
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Hospice Care near Old Saybrook
No sales pressure. We'll tell you straight if we're not a fit.
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