Hospice Support Care in Preston, 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.
The night your parent came home from William W. Backus Hospital, everything felt quieter than you expected. The hospice nurse had come and gone, the paperwork was signed, and you were standing in the kitchen off Route 2 wondering who was going to be there between the scheduled visits. You hadn’t slept well in days, and there was still a full house to manage. That in-between space, the hours when the medical team isn’t present, is exactly where we work.
We’re Private Duty Aides, a nurse-founded home care agency serving families across New London County, including all areas of Preston. We provide consistent, attentive support during end-of-life care at home, so the people you love have someone with them, and you have a real person to call when you need one.
Hospice support care means having a trained aide present in your home during the hours when family needs to rest, work, or simply step away. Our aides don’t replace the hospice nurses and social workers you already have. They work alongside that team, keeping a person comfortable, calm, and accompanied. That includes light personal care, repositioning, gentle conversation, reading aloud, sitting quietly, and making sure someone is there if anything changes.
Day to day, this looks different in every home. For some Preston families, it’s overnight coverage so a spouse can finally sleep without one ear open. For others, it’s a consistent afternoon presence while adult children are at work. After a discharge from William W. Backus Hospital, we can often have someone in the home within 24 to 48 hours, sometimes the same day, because the timeline of end-of-life care doesn’t wait for paperwork to catch up.
Families in Preston often come to us when they realize the hospice schedule has gaps they hadn’t planned for. The visits are shorter than people expect, and the rest of the day still needs to be managed. We fill that space without disrupting what the clinical team has already put in place.
Because Private Duty Aides was founded by a working nurse, our approach to hospice support is built around what actually helps at the bedside. Our aides are briefed on the specifics of each person’s care plan, and they know when to call, when to stay calm, and when to get the hospice nurse on the line.
Nurse-founded
Our founder worked as a nurse and watched families struggle to find reliable, informed support during end-of-life care. She built this agency to fill that gap. That background shapes everything from how we brief aides to how we respond when things shift quickly.
Specific to hospice support
We don’t treat this like a standard companion care assignment. Aides who work hospice shifts are matched based on experience with end-of-life care, emotional steadiness, and the ability to work quietly alongside a clinical team without overstepping.
We stay reachable
When something changes at 2 a.m., you shouldn’t get a voicemail. When you call us about a shift change, a concern about your parent, or something the aide noticed, you reach someone who knows your case and can help.
Local to Preston
We know New London County. We know the discharge process at William W. Backus Hospital and how quickly families in Preston need to have care in place after a patient comes home. We’re not a remote call center trying to coordinate from three states away.
How it works
**Call or email us and we listen.** You tell us what’s happening, where things stand, and what you need. No intake forms, no hold music, no pressure to commit on the first call.
**We match your caregiver carefully.** For hospice support, the match matters more than almost anything. We consider temperament, experience with end-of-life care, and what we know about your family’s situation before we make a recommendation.
**Care starts within 48 hours.** For urgent situations in Preston, same-day starts happen regularly. We know this isn’t a service families plan months in advance.
**We check in and stay reachable.** Once care is in place, we stay in contact with you. If something changes, if the schedule needs to shift, or if you have a concern, you call us and someone who knows your case picks up.
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 shift starts with the aide getting a brief update from you or the hospice nurse on how the night went and what the person needs that day. From there, it's a mix of presence and assistance: light personal care, help eating or drinking if that's still part of the routine, repositioning for comfort, and staying in the room so the person isn't alone. A lot of it is quiet, attentive company. If something changes physically, the aide notes it, keeps you informed, and contacts the hospice nurse if needed.
We can typically have a caregiver in place within 24 to 48 hours of your first call. For families in Preston where a patient has just come home from William W. Backus Hospital and the situation is urgent, same-day starts are something we work toward whenever we can make them happen. The sooner you call us, even before discharge is finalized, the more flexibility we have to get the right person matched and ready.
We're a private-pay agency, so we don't bill Medicare, Medicaid, or insurance directly. Some long-term care insurance policies will reimburse for private-duty aide hours, so it's worth checking your policy. We'll give you clear, straightforward pricing so you know exactly what to expect, with no surprises on the invoice.
Home health aides are typically authorized through Medicare hospice benefits and come on a scheduled, limited basis to help with personal care tasks. Our hospice support aides provide the coverage in between those visits. We're not there to duplicate what the clinical team does. We're there to make sure someone is present, calm, and attentive during the many hours that aren't covered by the formal hospice schedule. Think of it as filling the gaps that families can't fill alone.
Yes, and we take this seriously. For hospice support especially, the person sitting with your parent during their final weeks needs to be someone they can tolerate, and ideally someone whose presence actually helps. We talk with you about your parent's personality, what kind of company they respond well to, any preferences around conversation or quiet, and we make the match based on that, not just on who's available for that shift.
We don't leave you to figure it out. If your regular aide calls out sick or has a conflict, we contact you directly and arrange a qualified substitute who has been briefed on your parent's needs and situation. We try to avoid surprises, and if a change is coming, you hear from us before the shift starts, not after someone doesn't show.
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No sales pressure. We'll tell you straight if we're not a fit.
Private Duty Aides — Preston, CT
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