Hospice Support Care in Waterford, 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 hospice nurse came and went in under an hour, and suddenly the house off Rope Ferry Road felt very quiet. You were still holding a folder of papers they’d left behind, trying to read the instructions, trying to hold it together. The care team is doing important work, but they can’t be here around the clock, and you can’t be either. That’s the gap we fill.
We’re a nurse-founded, private-pay home care agency serving Waterford and the rest of New London County. We work alongside hospice teams, not instead of them. Our aides sit with your family member, help with personal comfort, handle the small things that make a room feel less clinical, and make sure someone who knows what they’re doing is present when you need to step away.
Hospice Support Care is non-medical assistance provided alongside your hospice team. Our aides are there for comfort, presence, and the practical tasks that keep a person feeling cared for at home. That includes gentle personal care like bathing and repositioning, light housekeeping around the bedroom, preparing simple food or drinks, and just being there so your family member isn’t alone.
For families in Waterford, the need often surfaces right after a transition home from Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London. The discharge happens, the hospice enrollment gets set up, and suddenly there’s a stretch of hours each day when no professional is present. Our aides step into those hours. They follow the hospice care plan, communicate clearly with the nursing team, and handle anything that keeps the environment calm and safe without overstepping into medical territory.
What Waterford families typically ask for is simple but real. Someone to sit with their family member so they can sleep. Someone to notice if something has shifted. Someone who won’t panic, won’t be awkward about the situation, and won’t make a hard time feel harder. We’ve heard this request from families across every part of town, from the neighborhoods near the shore to the quieter roads off Route 156.
Because Private Duty Aides was founded by a working nurse, our aides are trained to understand end-of-life care rhythms, to recognize what to report to the hospice team, and to bring a level of awareness to this specific kind of work that a general caregiver placement service typically doesn’t provide.
Nurse-founded, and it shows. Our founder is a working nurse who watched families struggle through exactly this situation. She started Private Duty Aides because she knew what end-of-life care at home actually requires, and she built the training and matching process around that reality.
Built around this service, not just availability. We don’t send whoever is free. For Hospice Support Care, we look at a caregiver’s specific background with end-of-life situations, how they communicate with hospice nurses, and whether they’re a genuine match for your family’s needs and pace.
We answer when you call. End-of-life care doesn’t follow a schedule. If something shifts with your family member’s condition or you need to change coverage, you call us directly and we respond. There’s no voicemail maze when things are urgent.
We know Waterford and New London County. We understand how discharge from Lawrence + Memorial works, the geography of getting a caregiver to your home quickly, and the particular rhythms of families in this part of Connecticut. We’re not a national service guessing at the local picture.
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 looks different depending on where your family member is in the process, but it usually involves help with personal comfort like repositioning, light hygiene, and staying clean and dry. Our aides also handle light tasks in the room, prepare simple food or drinks when wanted, and provide steady companionship throughout their shift. They follow the hospice care plan and communicate clearly with the nursing team about anything that changes. The goal is that your family member is never uncomfortable and never alone for long stretches.
We can often start the same day a family calls us, especially when someone has just come home from Lawrence + Memorial and needs coverage right away. In most cases we have care in place within 48 hours. If you know a discharge date is coming, calling a day or two ahead gives us the best chance to match the right caregiver before your family member arrives home.
Private Duty Aides is a private-pay agency, which means we don't bill Medicare, Medicaid, or insurance. The hospice benefit through Medicare covers your hospice nurse visits, medications, and medical equipment, but it doesn't include around-the-clock aide support at home. Families who want that continuous presence pay for it privately. We're upfront about costs from the first call so there are no surprises.
A home health aide typically works under a skilled nursing order and focuses on specific medical or rehabilitative tasks. Our hospice support aides are non-medical, meaning they don't administer medication or perform clinical procedures. What they do is provide the comfort-focused, presence-based support that runs alongside the hospice team's clinical work. They're trained specifically for end-of-life situations rather than general home health visits.
Yes, and for Hospice Support Care we take this particularly seriously. We ask about your family member's temperament, any preferences they've expressed, cultural or communication considerations, and the general tone of the household. Some people want quiet and calm. Others find comfort in a little conversation and warmth. We try to match accordingly, and if the first pairing doesn't feel right, we'll work with you to adjust.
We maintain coverage so a shift is never simply left uncovered. If your regular aide is sick or has an emergency, we contact you directly and arrange a replacement who has been briefed on your family's situation. In end-of-life care especially, we understand that continuity matters, so we don't send an unprepared stranger. You'll know who's coming before they arrive.
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No sales pressure. We'll tell you straight if we're not a fit.
Private Duty Aides — Waterford, CT
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