Veteran home care across Connecticut, for the parent who earned the right to stay home

Dad is home from the hospital, and suddenly the plan you had isn’t enough

Maybe it started with a fall. Or a medication mix-up that landed him at Yale New Haven for three days. Or maybe it was slower than that — a few missed meals, a car he stopped driving in March, a daughter in Glastonbury who started calling twice a day just to make sure he picked up. Whatever the moment was, you’re now looking at a father who served in Vietnam, Korea, or the Gulf, who kept his own lawn until he was 78, who has a routine so ingrained into that house that moving him feels like the wrong answer — and you know it. The question isn’t whether he needs help. The question is how to get him the right help without stripping away the independence that has always defined him.

Private Duty Aides is a homemaker-companion agency registered with the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection. We provide non-medical in-home care — the kind that keeps a veteran’s daily life intact. That means showing up in the morning to help with breakfast, driving him to the VA clinic in West Haven, sitting with him through an afternoon that used to feel too quiet, making sure the medications he manages himself are organized and on schedule, and doing the laundry he’d rather not admit he’s been putting off for two weeks. We cover all eight Connecticut counties, from Litchfield to New London, and we match each veteran with an aide who stays — not a rotating roster of strangers he has to re-explain his life to every Monday.

Founded by a Connecticut RN — not a franchise, not a call center

Private Duty Aides was founded by Mike, a Connecticut Registered Nurse who spent years watching families try to navigate home care options that were either impersonal, inconsistent, or both. The agency he built operates differently. Mike personally interviews every aide before they work with a client. He is not screening for the warmest handshake — he is looking at judgment, reliability, and whether this person can be trusted alone in someone’s home, with someone’s father, on a Tuesday at 7 a.m. when no one is watching. We do not subcontract. We do not pull aides from a staffing pool. The person who shows up on day one is the person who shows up on day ninety. Our caregiver retention is something we track deliberately, because the families we serve — veterans and their families across Connecticut — deserve consistency, not a guessing game.

Paying for in-home care is one of the first questions families ask, and it is worth being straightforward about. Many of our veteran clients self-pay, and some have long-term care insurance policies that cover homemaker-companion services. For eligible veterans and surviving spouses, the VA Aid and Attendance pension benefit can be a meaningful source of funding — it is an underused benefit that many Connecticut families do not know they qualify for. The amounts vary based on living situation and care needs, but for a veteran receiving regular in-home assistance, the benefit can offset a substantial portion of care costs. We can walk your family through what questions to ask a VA-accredited benefits counselor, and we offer a free home assessment so you understand exactly what care looks like before any financial commitment is made.

The house still holds everything — it deserves someone who understands that

There are fifty years of decisions in that house. The chair he watches the news from. The coffee he makes the same way he has made it since 1974. The VFW calendar on the kitchen wall, the route he still wants to walk when the weather cooperates, the way he likes his eggs. These are not small things to him, and they should not be small things to whoever is showing up to help. When the wrong care is in place — or no care at all — the slow erosion of routine is what breaks families. A veteran who was once fiercely self-sufficient starts to feel managed instead of supported. Families in Fairfield County, in Hartford, in smaller towns like Tolland or Colchester, tell us the same thing: they didn’t want a facility, they didn’t want to uproot him, they wanted someone to come in and help hold the life he built together for as long as possible. With the right aide, that is exactly what happens. He stays in his home. His routine survives. His family stops holding their breath every time the phone rings. That is not a small thing either.

What does Veteran Home Care actually look like day to day?

It depends on your dad, honestly. For most veterans we work with, a typical day might include help getting up and dressed in the morning, a hot breakfast, medication reminders, light housekeeping, and a ride to a VA appointment or the barber. In the afternoon, maybe a walk around the block or just company while he watches the game. We handle laundry, grocery runs, and meal prep. What we don’t do is wound care or injections — that’s skilled nursing territory. This is about keeping his routine intact and his home running the way he likes it.

How does this work alongside VA benefits my father already receives?

Our care fits around whatever the VA is already providing — it doesn’t replace it. If he has a VA home health nurse coming twice a week, our aide handles everything in between: the daily routines, the errands, the companionship the VA visit doesn’t cover. We’re private duty, so we operate independently, but we communicate with family and can coordinate around VA schedules. If he’s using the VA Aid & Attendance pension benefit, that money can be applied directly toward our services. We’re happy to walk you through how that works — call us at (475) 264-4830.

How quickly can care actually start?

In most cases, we can have someone in the home within 24 to 48 hours of the initial call. We start with a free in-home assessment — usually takes about an hour — where we meet your dad, see the layout of the home, and talk through what his day actually looks like. From there we match a caregiver and confirm a start date. If there’s an urgent situation — a recent hospital discharge, a family member who can’t stay any longer — tell us upfront and we’ll move faster. We’ve started care the same day when it was needed.

How do most families pay for this, and does VA Aid & Attendance help?

Most families use a combination of private pay and benefits. VA Aid & Attendance is a pension benefit available to wartime veterans — and surviving spouses — who need help with daily activities. It can pay anywhere from roughly $800 to over $2,300 per month depending on the situation, and it can be used for our services. Connecticut’s CHCPE program is another option worth exploring if he has Medicaid. Long-term care insurance policies often cover non-medical home care too — we’ll review your policy with you. We’re upfront about costs during the assessment so there are no surprises.

How do you match a caregiver, and will it be the same person each time?

Matching matters — especially for veterans who’ve spent decades with a strong sense of how they like things done. We consider personality, schedule, and whether your dad would do better with someone quiet and steady or someone more talkative. We aim to keep the same caregiver on his regular shifts so he’s not meeting someone new every week. Life happens, so we always have a backup, and we’ll introduce that person before they ever show up alone. If a match isn’t working after a few visits, we’ll swap without drama. Consistency is something we take seriously.

What if he needs care overnight or around the clock?

We cover that. Overnight shifts — typically 10 or 11 p.m. through early morning — are available if he’s getting up at night, has fall risk concerns, or the family just needs to sleep without worry. For situations that require someone present 24 hours, we build out a team of two or three consistent aides rotating through live-in or shift-based coverage. Live-in care is often more affordable than you’d expect compared to hourly 24/7 staffing. We’ll walk through the options and the cost difference so you can make the call that makes sense for your family.

How is Private Duty Aides different from a home health agency?

Home health agencies send skilled clinicians — nurses, physical therapists — usually for short, specific visits covered by Medicare after a hospitalization. Once the skilled need is gone, they’re done. We’re different. We provide non-medical, ongoing daily support — the kind that keeps someone living at home month after month, not just recovering from a procedure. We’re not billing Medicare for our visits. We’re also nurse-founded, which means clinical judgment shapes how we train and supervise our aides, even though the work itself isn’t medical. That background matters when you’re caring for an aging veteran with complex needs.

What happens if his needs get more serious over time?

We reassess regularly, and we’re honest when things shift. If he needs more hours, we adjust the schedule. If he starts needing skilled nursing — wound care, catheter management, IV therapy — we’ll tell you clearly that’s outside what we do, and we can help connect you with the right resource. We don’t try to stretch our scope to keep a client. What we can often do is continue alongside a skilled provider, handling everything non-medical while they handle the clinical piece. The goal is keeping him home as long as it’s safely possible — not just keeping him on our schedule.