Personal care services for seniors cover the private parts of the day: getting washed, dressed, to the toilet, and up out of a chair. When those tasks stop being safe to do alone, Hartford families usually face the question after a slip in the shower or a hospital discharge. Do we move Mom, keep doing this ourselves, or let someone in?
Golden Touch Personal Care is a licensed, bonded and insured Connecticut homemaker and companion agency at 696 Park Street in Hartford. Our caregivers give non-medical, hands-on help with bathing, dressing, toileting, grooming and safe transfers, in your parent's own home and at their own pace.
The same familiar caregiver comes each visit, so the most personal tasks are never handled by a stranger, and if the match is not right we re-match at no charge. Care can start within 24 hours, and a Care Coordinator answers after hours. Request a free consultation, or call (860) 393-1055.
What personal care services for seniors mean at home
Personal care is non-medical, hands-on help with the activities of daily living. A personal care aide, also called a personal care assistant, is there for the parts of the day that have become physically hard: standing in the shower, reaching a zipper, getting up from the toilet.
In Connecticut, personal care services for seniors come from homemaker and companion agencies like ours, and the state draws a clear line. We can help a person wash, dress, use the bathroom and move safely. We cannot do anything that belongs to a physician, a home health aide or a therapist.
The six activities of daily living
The six are bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring in and out of a bed or chair, continence and eating. Count honestly which ones your parent still manages alone. The answer tells you how many hours to start with.
What personal care is not
Our caregivers do not give injections, change wound dressings, take blood pressure or administer medication. They remind, prompt, watch for missed doses and report to you. Skilled care at home comes from a home health provider ordered by your parent's physician, and the two work side by side.
What a personal care visit actually looks like
Picture a Tuesday morning in Wethersfield. Your father's caregiver, the same woman who came Thursday and Saturday, calls a hello from the hall so he is never startled, then checks the bathroom: shower chair in place, mat flat, clean clothes laid out in the order he likes to dress.
The shower happens at his speed. She stays within arm's reach, hands him the washcloth for what he can reach himself, and keeps a towel over his lap for what he cannot. He is asked before he is touched, every time. Afterward she helps with shaving, his dentures and the buttons his fingers no longer manage.
By mid-morning he is in his chair with breakfast and the bathroom floor is dry. The rest of the four hours can go to lunch, a walk to the mailbox, laundry or simply company. Before she leaves she sends you a short note: he ate well, he was steadier than last week, he asked about the grandchildren.
What in-home personal care includes
Most personal care services for seniors in Greater Hartford draw from this list; items come and go as your parent's needs change.
How each task is done matters as much as whether it is done. Our caregivers ask before they help, keep the towel in place, and follow the order your parent has always used. Slow is fine.
- Bathing and showering: full help or standby support, in the shower, at the sink or as a bed bath
- Grooming and oral care: hair, shaving, nail care, dentures, lotion for dry skin
- Dressing: buttons, zippers, socks and shoes, adaptive clothing when it helps
- Toileting and continence care: getting to the bathroom in time, help with a commode, changing incontinence products discreetly
- Safe transfers and mobility: bed to chair, chair to standing, in and out of the car, a steady arm on the stairs, a walker used correctly
- Help at mealtimes: cutting food, prompting someone who forgets to eat, company at the table
- Medication reminders on schedule, with a note to you when a dose is missed
- Fall prevention, safety checks and skin checks, with anything new reported to the family
Who personal care at home is for
Families usually reach us after one of three things: a fall or near-fall in the bathroom, a hospital discharge, or the quiet realization that a parent has stopped bathing because it feels unsafe or embarrassing.
Personal care services for seniors fit a parent who needs a hand with two or three tasks and one who needs help with nearly all of them: an older adult living alone in Hartford, a couple in Glastonbury where one spouse has become the other's caregiver, an adult child in Manchester doing the bathing herself and unable to keep it up.
It is often paired with a condition that changes what the body can do: dementia and Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, recovery after a stroke or surgery, or hospice. Coming home from Hartford Hospital or Saint Francis? Ask about Safe Transition Home, which can include a complimentary ride home for qualifying new clients.
When your parent refuses help with bathing
"I don't need anyone." "I'm not letting a stranger see me like that." That is not stubbornness. It is a person protecting their dignity in the only way left, and it deserves a careful answer rather than an argument.
Usually the resistance is about who, not whether. Being helped in the bathroom by your own daughter or son is often harder for a parent than being helped by a caregiver who does this every day. You get to be the child again instead of the person who argues about showers.
Introduce the caregiver as help for you, not for them. Start with the tasks your parent will accept and let bathing follow once trust exists. If your mother would only be comfortable with a woman helping her bathe, or your father with a man, say so on the first call. Preferences like that are part of how we match.
Bathroom safety while we are there
The bathroom is the room families worry about most. At the consultation we look at it with you and tell you whether a shower chair, grab bars, a raised toilet seat or a non-slip mat would make things safer.
How Golden Touch does personal care differently
Six years in business, 35 families cared for, and more than 20 years of caregiving experience behind the people who run the agency.
One caregiver, matched by hand
We do not send whoever is free. On the first call we learn your parent's routine, temperament, language and the help they need, and choose a caregiver to fit. That caregiver keeps coming; when they are away, the person who covers is briefed on the routine first. If the match is not right, we re-match at no charge.
Screened before they reach your door
Every caregiver is background-checked, as Connecticut requires of homemaker and companion agencies. We are a licensed, bonded and insured Connecticut homemaker and companion agency, and you receive a written service plan that says what will be done and when.
Someone to call at any hour
The office is open Monday to Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and outside those hours a Care Coordinator answers. Care runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and can start within 24 hours of your first call. Visits have a 4-hour minimum, enough time for a shower, breakfast and a walk without rushing.
How personal care fits with our other services
Personal care rarely stands alone; most families build one plan from several services, with one caregiver doing all of it, so nothing has to be explained twice.
Companion care fills the hours between tasks with conversation or a walk. Homemaker services keep the kitchen stocked and the floors clear. Medication reminders fold into the morning routine, and transportation assistance means the caregiver who helped your mother dress can also drive her to the appointment.
Respite care hands us the whole routine for an afternoon or two weeks while a family caregiver rests. When a few hours a day is not enough, the plan grows into live-in or 24-hour care without changing agencies or introducing a new face.
How to get started
Call (860) 393-1055 or request a free consultation online. A Care Coordinator listens to what is happening, including the parts that are hard to say out loud, and answers your questions on the spot, including what it is likely to cost.
At the free in-home consultation we meet your parent, walk through the bathroom and bedroom, and talk about the routine as it is now. From that we build a written plan and a clear quote based on the hours and the level of help.
Then we match the caregiver, and you know who is coming before they arrive. The first visit is lighter on tasks and longer on introductions, so your parent can decide this person is welcome in the house.
Personal care across Greater Hartford and Connecticut
Our office is at 696 Park Street in Hartford, and our personal care services for seniors reach the towns around it: West Hartford, East Hartford, Manchester, Glastonbury, Farmington, Simsbury, Avon, Bloomfield, Newington, Wethersfield, Windsor, Rocky Hill and New Britain, plus Middletown, Cromwell and Portland in Middlesex County and Vernon to the east.
A caregiver in Simsbury follows the same written plan and reports back the same way as one in Hartford's South End. If your parent lives at the edge of our area, tell us early so we can match someone who can be there reliably, in January as well as June. Wherever the house is, the plan, the caregiver and the note back to you are the same.
What shapes the cost
There is no rate card on this page on purpose: the right figure depends on your family. These are the things that move it.
- How many hours a week and how they are spread: two mornings a week costs less than a daily visit, and the 4-hour minimum sets the floor for any single visit.
- The level of hands-on help: standby support in the shower is lighter work than full help with transfers and continence care.
- The time of day: overnight, weekend and holiday hours are scheduled differently from a weekday morning.
- Whether care is hourly, live-in, or 24-hour through rotating shifts.
- Whether meals, laundry or a ride to an appointment fit inside the hours already booked.
- How your family pays: private pay, long-term care insurance, VA benefits or Medicaid, subject to verification.
You get a clear, exact quote on your first call, and families pay by private pay, long-term care insurance, VA benefits or Medicaid, subject to verification. Read how families pay for home care.
Personal care at home vs. Assisted living
| Aspect | Personal care at home | Assisted living |
|---|---|---|
| Where the day happens | In the home your parent knows, with their own bathroom, bed and routine | In a shared building, with a move, a new room and new rules to learn |
| Who helps | One hand-matched caregiver who returns each visit, with a re-match at no charge if it is not right | A rotating staff shared across many residents, with little say over who helps |
| Timing of care | At your parent's pace, on the schedule you set, including overnight if needed | On the building's schedule, with waits at the busy hours |
| Hours of help | Only the hours you need, from a few mornings a week to around the clock, with a 4-hour minimum per visit | A monthly arrangement whether or not help is needed that day |
| Family involvement | A note after each visit, and the plan changes with a phone call | Visits on the building's terms, and changes usually mean a new care level and a new agreement |
| How fast it starts | Care can start within 24 hours of the first call | An application, an assessment and a move-in date |
