Personal Care in Derby, CT
Hands-on help with bathing, dressing, grooming, and daily personal hygiene for seniors.
No sales pressure. We'll tell you straight if we're not a fit.
You noticed it a few months ago, maybe in the bathroom off the hallway of the house on Elizabeth Street, the bar of soap on the floor and your parent just quietly picking it up without saying anything. They weren’t going to ask for help. They never are. That moment has been sitting with you since, and now you’re trying to figure out what to do before something worse happens.
Personal care is exactly the kind of help that’s hard to accept, because it’s physical and close and private. We understand that. Our caregivers work in Derby and know how to step into a home gently, earn trust slowly, and make the whole arrangement feel less like a concession and more like just how the day goes.
We’re a private-pay, non-medical home care agency founded by a nurse right here in Connecticut. If you want to talk through what your family actually needs, we’re ready when you are.
Personal care covers the hands-on, body-close assistance that most people need eventually but rarely want to talk about: bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, transferring from bed to chair, and moving safely around the home. It’s not medical, but it’s not light either. Done right, it requires patience, discretion, and a real sense of how to follow someone’s lead rather than take over.
On a typical day in Derby, that might look like helping someone shower safely before breakfast, laying out clothes in the order they prefer, offering a steadying hand on the stairs, and helping with incontinence care quietly and without making it a bigger moment than it needs to be. Families across all areas of Derby call us for this kind of support when a parent has become unsteady, when recovery from surgery has lasted longer than expected, or when the everyday routines that used to be automatic now take twice as long and carry real risk.
We work closely with families coming home from Griffin Hospital after a procedure or a fall. The transition from hospital to home is often when physical care needs become undeniable, and having a caregiver in place before discharge makes that first week at home much safer. If you’re coordinating a discharge right now, we can move quickly.
Because we’re nurse-founded, personal care isn’t an afterthought for us. Our founder has seen what happens when this kind of care is rushed or matched poorly, and the whole way we train and pair caregivers reflects that. We brief every caregiver on your parent’s specific needs, preferences, and limits before the first visit.
Our agency was started by a working nurse who watched families struggle to find personal care that treated people like people. She saw the dignity issues, the privacy concerns, the parent who needed help but felt humiliated asking. Everything we do is built around that understanding.
We don’t treat all services the same. Personal care requires a different kind of briefing, a different matching process, and caregivers with a specific kind of patience. We invest more time before the first visit than most agencies do because we’ve seen what happens when the fit is wrong.
When something changes with your parent’s care, whether it’s a new physical limitation, a bad week, or a concern about the caregiver, you call us and we answer. We’re not a platform. We’re a small agency that stays reachable on purpose.
We know New Haven County well, including the discharge process at Griffin Hospital and the kinds of homes and families we work with across Derby. That local knowledge isn’t a talking point. It means we know how to get care in place quickly and practically.
How it works
You tell us what’s going on. No intake forms, no pressure. We listen to your situation, ask a few questions about what personal care needs look like right now, and give you a straight answer about whether we’re the right fit.
For personal care specifically, the match matters more than almost anything else. We consider your parent’s temperament, their comfort level, the specific tasks involved, and any strong preferences about who they’ll let close. We don’t just fill a slot with whoever’s available.
Most Derby families are up and running within two days of first calling us. If you’re managing an urgent situation, a discharge from Griffin, or a sudden change in condition, we can often start same day. We’d rather move fast and adjust than leave someone waiting.
Once care starts, we don’t disappear. We check in regularly, ask how the caregiver relationship is going, and make adjustments when something changes. You’ll always have someone to call when you have a question or a concern.
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, personal care covers bathing or showering, dressing, grooming (hair, oral hygiene, shaving), toileting and incontinence support, and safe movement around the home including transfers from bed or chair. Some clients need help with all of these; others need help with just one or two. We build the daily routine around what your parent actually requires, not a fixed package.
In most cases, we can have a caregiver in place within 24 to 48 hours of your call. If you contact us while your parent is still at Griffin and you know the discharge date, we can have everything arranged before they come home. Same-day starts are possible for urgent situations. The earlier you call us, the smoother that first day at home goes.
We're a private-pay agency, which means we don't bill Medicare, Medicaid, or insurance. Families pay us directly. We know that's a real consideration and we're upfront about it from the first conversation. Many families find that private-pay care gives them more control over scheduling, caregiver selection, and the specific tasks they need help with, but we want you to have the full picture before you decide.
A home health aide (HHA) is a medical designation, usually tied to a physician's order and billed through Medicare or insurance. Our personal care aides provide non-medical, hands-on assistance with daily activities. We don't do wound care, medication administration, or clinical assessments. What we do is help someone get through the physical demands of daily life safely and with their dignity intact, which is what most families actually need most of the time.
Yes, and we take this seriously. Personal care is close and private, and a poor personality match makes everything harder. When you call, we ask about your parent's temperament, their preferences, anything that's worked or not worked before, and any strong feelings they have about who they'll accept help from. We use that to make a genuine match, not just assign whoever's available next.
We notify you as early as possible and work to send someone your parent already knows or has met, rather than a complete stranger. For personal care especially, we try hard not to send someone unfamiliar without preparation. You'll always hear from us directly, not through a scheduling app or an automated message. We'd rather have an uncomfortable conversation than leave you without care or without information.
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All home care services in Derby
No sales pressure. We'll tell you straight if we're not a fit.
Private Duty Aides — Derby, CT
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