Services
What we actually do, hour by hour.
Most home care websites list four words and a phone number. Below is the long version: what each service covers, who it fits, what a day looks like, the hours we staff it, and — just as important — what it does not include. If you are comparing agencies, this is the page to compare on.
Jump to
- Personal care
- Homemaking and meals
- Companionship
- Respite for family
- Awake overnight care
- Hospital-to-home transition
Four-hour minimum per visit, on every service below.
01 · Bathing, dressing, grooming, mobility
Personal care
Hands-on help with the parts of the day that have become hard or unsafe to do alone. This is the service families wait longest to ask for and regret waiting on, usually after a fall in the bathroom.
What it covers
- Shower, tub, and bed-bath assistance, including hair washing
- Dressing, including compression stockings and adaptive clothing
- Grooming: shaving, hair, nail filing, and oral or denture care
- Toileting, commode and bedpan help, and incontinence care with skin checks
- Transfers with a gait belt, and stand-by assist for walker or cane use
- Repositioning on a schedule, and range-of-motion exercises a therapist has already prescribed
- Medication reminders — reading the label aloud, opening the bottle, handing it over
- Reporting changes in skin, appetite, continence, or steadiness to the supervisor same-day
Who it suits
People who are still themselves mentally but whose body has stopped cooperating, and people in early to middle dementia who need cueing more than lifting.
- Someone who has stopped bathing because getting in the tub frightens them
- Someone who has had one fall, or one near-fall nobody witnessed
- Someone discharged with a walker they will not use unless prompted
- A spouse who has been doing the lifting and physically cannot keep doing it
A typical day
A four-hour morning shift, which is the most requested block we staff.
- 8:00Arrive, greet, check overnight — did they sleep, did they get up, is there pain anywhere new.
- 8:15Bathroom, then shower with a bench and hand-held sprayer. Skin gets looked at while it is visible.
- 9:00Dressed for the day in real clothes, not pajamas. Hair, teeth, shave, lotion.
- 9:30Breakfast at the table, not in bed. Medication reminder with it. Fluids counted.
- 10:15Walk the hallway twice with the walker. Bed changed while they are up.
- 11:00Something that is not care — the crossword, the phone call to the sister, the birdfeeder.
- 11:45Lunch made and left plated in the fridge with the lid labeled. Notes written up.
- 12:00Leave. The supervisor gets a message if anything looked different from last visit.
Hours available
- Shift length
- 4 to 24 hours
- Days
- 7 days a week, including holidays
- Overnight
- Awake overnights available — see below
- Start time
- Usually 3–5 days from your first call
What it does not include
- Administering medication, including setting up a pill organizer
- Insulin, injections, or blood-glucose sticks
- Wound care of any kind, including dressing changes
- Catheter or ostomy care
- Suctioning, tube feeding, or oxygen titration
- Any two-person lift when only one caregiver is scheduled
If the person needs any of the above, they need a home health agency alongside us, or instead of us. Tell us and we will say so plainly on the first call rather than starting and backing out later.
02 · Housekeeping, laundry, groceries, cooking
Homemaking and meals
Keeping the household running so the home stays a place someone can safely stay in. Falls happen on cluttered floors, and people stop eating when cooking becomes a project.
What it covers
- Light housekeeping: floors, surfaces, bathroom, kitchen, taking out trash
- Dishes, and resetting the kitchen so the next meal is easy to start
- Laundry, linens, and putting clothes back where they are actually kept
- Bed changes and bathroom sanitation, weekly or more often as needed
- Grocery shopping with a list, using the client's money and a receipt every time
- Cooking to a prescribed diet — low sodium, renal, diabetic, soft or pureed textures
- Batch cooking and labeled leftovers for the days we are not there
- Mail sorted, plants watered, pet fed, and the walkway kept clear
Who it suits
People who are physically capable of their own personal care but whose house has quietly gotten away from them — and people whose weight is dropping because every meal has become too much work.
- Someone living alone whose fridge has expired food in it
- Someone whose doctor prescribed a diet nobody has time to cook
- A couple where one partner did all the cooking and has died or gotten sick
- Anyone whose floor has become an obstacle course of boxes, cords, and rugs
A typical day
A four-hour afternoon shift, twice a week, which is the most common homemaking pattern.
- 1:00Arrive. Sit down for ten minutes first — the visit works better when it starts with a conversation.
- 1:15Kitchen: dishes, counters, fridge cleared of anything past date, list made for the store.
- 2:00Laundry started. Bathroom cleaned while it runs — tub, toilet, floor, grab bars wiped.
- 2:45Floors through the main path of the house. Loose rugs and cords moved out of the walking line.
- 3:15Groceries, or the pharmacy run, with the receipt brought back and left on the counter.
- 4:00Dinner cooked plus two extra portions, labeled with the day, into the fridge.
- 4:45Laundry folded and put away. Trash out. Mail sorted into keep and shred.
- 5:00Leave. Anything odd — a bill in a collections envelope, a new bruise — goes to the supervisor.
Hours available
- Shift length
- 4 to 12 hours
- Days
- 7 days a week
- Common pattern
- Two or three visits a week
- Start time
- Usually 3–5 days from your first call
What it does not include
- Heavy or deep cleaning: windows, carpet shampooing, moving furniture
- Anything on a ladder, a roof, or outside the ground floor
- Snow removal beyond clearing the immediate walkway and steps
- Cleaning up after other adults in the household who are not our client
- Hoarding remediation or biohazard cleanup
- Handling the client's bank account, cards, or bill payments
Caregivers do not take money except a set amount for a specific errand, and every errand comes back with a receipt. If a caregiver is ever offered a gift, a loan, or a place in a will, they are required to decline it and report it.
03 · Conversation, errands, appointments
Companionship
The service families most often skip and most often come back for. Isolation measurably shortens lives, and presence is the only treatment for it. This is not babysitting — it is a standing appointment with a person who is glad to be there.
What it covers
- Conversation, cards, puzzles, music, reading aloud, watching the game
- Escort to medical appointments, with notes taken so the family knows what was said
- Driving to errands, the barber, church, the cemetery, or a friend's house
- Walks, light exercise, and getting outside when the weather allows it
- Help with the phone, the mail, forms, and the endless insurance letters
- Video calls set up with grandchildren who live somewhere else
- Reminders and gentle structure through the day for someone with memory loss
- A written visit note the family can read the same evening
Who it suits
People who are safe on their own but alone too much, people whose family lives out of state, and people in early memory loss for whom routine and a familiar face slow the drift.
- A parent who says they are fine and has not spoken to anyone in four days
- Someone who stopped driving and therefore stopped going anywhere
- A family out of state who needs eyes in the house every week
- Someone recently widowed, in the months when the casseroles stop coming
A typical day
A four-hour weekday shift built around one appointment, which is how most companion visits look.
- 10:00Arrive with coffee. Talk. This part is the service, not the preamble to it.
- 10:30Mail and paperwork on the table — what needs answering, what is junk, what needs the daughter.
- 11:00Drive to the cardiology follow-up. Wait in the room if invited, take notes either way.
- 12:00Lunch out, if they want it. Somewhere with a parking spot close to the door.
- 1:00Pharmacy pickup on the way home. Groceries if the list is short.
- 1:30Home. Walk to the end of the block and back. Sit on the porch if it is warm.
- 1:45Visit note written: what the cardiologist said, what was eaten, what the mood was.
- 2:00Leave. The note goes to the family the same day.
Hours available
- Shift length
- 4 to 24 hours
- Days
- 7 days a week
- Driving
- Caregiver's insured vehicle or the client's, by arrangement
- Start time
- Usually 3–5 days from your first call
What it does not include
- Any hands-on personal care not written into the care plan
- Being the responsible party for medical decisions
- Overnight supervision unless scheduled as an awake overnight shift
- Transporting anyone who cannot transfer into a car with one-person assist
- Managing money, banking, or acting under a power of attorney
- Interpreting medical advice — we write down what was said, we do not explain it
Companion care is not a substitute for supervision of someone who wanders or is at risk when alone. If that is the situation, say so — the honest answer is more hours or a different level of care, not a companion visit.
04 · Planned relief for the family caregiver
Respite for family
For the daughter, son, or spouse who has been doing all of it. Respite is not a luxury and it is not giving up; it is the maintenance that keeps a family caregiver able to continue. Most people who call us for respite have not had a full night's sleep in months.
What it covers
- Planned relief by the hour, the day, the weekend, or the week
- Awake overnight coverage so the family caregiver can sleep through
- Coverage while you work, travel, have your own surgery, or go to a funeral
- Short-term intensive help in the first weeks after a hospital discharge
- Standing weekly relief — the same four hours, the same day, every week
- Holiday and weekend coverage, at the times agencies are hardest to reach
- Full continuation of the existing routine, written down from you, not improvised
- The same caregiver each time wherever the schedule allows it
Who it suits
Family caregivers at any stage, but especially the ones who have started saying they are fine in a tone that means the opposite.
- A spouse who has not left the house alone in six weeks
- An adult child managing care from a full-time job
- A family caregiver with their own medical appointment they keep postponing
- Anyone who has begun to feel resentment and is frightened by it
A typical day
A standing weekly respite block. What matters most here is that it is predictable.
- 9:00Arrive early enough that you are not rushed out the door. Handover in the kitchen.
- 9:15You leave. That is the point of the shift, and we will say so if you hover.
- 9:30The routine continues exactly as you run it — same chair, same programme, same snack, same time.
- 11:00Personal care or activity, whichever the care plan calls for that day.
- 12:30Lunch, medication reminder, rest.
- 2:00Something outside, or a project — folding, sorting, the photo box.
- 3:45Kitchen reset, notes written so you can read four hours in thirty seconds.
- 4:00You come home to a calm house and a person who has had a good day.
Hours available
- Shift length
- 4 hours to 7 days a week
- Overnights
- Awake overnight included
- Booking
- Standing weekly, or one-off with notice
- Emergency respite
- Call us — we hold some capacity for it
What it does not include
- Live-in care where the caregiver sleeps in the home
- 24-hour coverage by a single caregiver — that is staffed as multiple shifts
- Supervision of other family members, including children
- Skilled nursing tasks while you are away
- Taking on decision-making authority in your absence
- Facility-based or adult day respite — we are in-home only
For someone on a Colorado Medicaid HCBS waiver, respite hours may already be a funded benefit. Ask your case manager, or ask us and we will help you find out.
05 · A caregiver awake through the night
Awake overnight care
A caregiver who stays awake and available the entire shift. Not a sleeper, not on call from a spare room. This is the service that keeps someone at home who would otherwise be moved into a facility for night-time safety alone.
What it covers
- A caregiver awake and in the home for the full shift
- Escort to the bathroom every time, which is where most night falls happen
- Repositioning through the night on the schedule in the care plan
- Redirection for sundowning, wandering, or waking confused
- Overnight incontinence care and bed changes
- A quiet, lit path and a house kept safe to move through at 3am
- Morning handover: what happened, how many times up, how the night actually went
- Immediate call to family and 911 if something is wrong
Who it suits
People whose nights have become the dangerous part of the day, and families who are not sleeping because they are listening for footsteps.
- Someone who gets up repeatedly and is unsteady in the dark
- Someone with dementia who is awake and agitated in the evening and overnight
- Someone just home from the hospital who is not yet steady
- A spouse who wakes at every sound and is running on four hours of sleep
A typical day
A ten-hour overnight, typically 8pm to 6am.
- 8:00pmArrive for handover. Read the day's notes. Evening medication reminder.
- 9:00pmEvening routine: bathroom, teeth, nightclothes, the same order every night.
- 10:00pmSettled in bed. Lights low, path to the bathroom clear and lit.
- 12:30amFirst trip to the bathroom, escorted. Repositioned on return.
- 2:00amAwake and confused about where they are. Redirected calmly, without arguing.
- 4:00amSecond bathroom trip. Brief change of linens. Back to sleep.
- 5:30amKitchen quietly reset, coffee started, night notes written up.
- 6:00amHandover to the family or the morning caregiver. Nothing gets lost between shifts.
Hours available
- Shift length
- 8 to 12 hours overnight
- Typical window
- 8pm–6am, adjustable to the household
- Days
- 7 nights a week, including holidays
- Rate
- Quoted separately from daytime hours
What it does not include
- Sleeping shifts — every overnight we staff is an awake shift
- Live-in arrangements with a caregiver residing in the home
- Skilled nursing observation or clinical monitoring
- Administering night-time medication
- Sole responsibility for a two-person transfer
- Household chores that make noise and wake the client
Overnight is a real cost, and we will tell you honestly when a smaller change — a bedside commode, a motion light, an earlier evening routine — would solve the problem for less money.
06 · The first weeks after a discharge
Hospital-to-home transition
Short-term, heavier coverage for the two to four weeks after a hospital or rehab discharge, when readmission risk is highest. Discharge planners can start this directly — see the referral page.
What it covers
- Coverage arranged around the discharge date, including same-day where capacity allows
- A home safety walk-through before or on the first day: rugs, cords, lighting, bathroom
- Help following the discharge instructions in the plain sense — rest, fluids, positioning, activity limits
- Medication reminders against the new list, and flagging duplicates or gaps to the family
- Transport and escort to follow-up appointments, which are the ones most often missed
- Meals that match a new prescribed diet, cooked and portioned
- Watching for the early signals — confusion, breathlessness, swelling, no appetite, no output
- Same-day escalation to the family, the case manager, or 911 as appropriate
Who it suits
Anyone going home after an admission for a fall, a cardiac or respiratory event, a joint replacement, a stroke, or a long rehab stay — and anyone going home to an empty house.
- A patient the discharge planner is not confident about sending home alone
- Someone with a new mobility limitation and a house that has not changed to match
- Someone with a new medication list they cannot yet keep straight
- A family who needs heavy help now and much less in a month
A typical day
Day one after a discharge. The first 72 hours carry most of the readmission risk.
- BeforeReferral received, capacity confirmed, and the start time set against the discharge date.
- Day 1Caregiver present at arrival home. Safety walk-through done and written up the same hour.
- Day 1Discharge paperwork read together. Follow-up appointments put on a calendar on the wall.
- Day 1Medication list checked against what is actually in the cabinet. Differences flagged, not fixed.
- Day 2Full-day coverage. Meals, fluids, movement in the pattern the discharge sheet asked for.
- Week 1Supervisor visit in the home. Care plan corrected against what the house is really like.
- Week 2First follow-up appointment attended, with notes back to the family the same day.
- Week 3+Hours step down as recovery allows, or continue if they should not.
Hours available
- Shift length
- 4 to 24 hours, usually heavier in week one
- Start
- Same-day possible for urgent discharges
- Referral turnaround
- Acknowledged within 4 business hours
- Typical duration
- 2 to 4 weeks, then reassessed
What it does not include
- Any skilled nursing element of the discharge plan
- Wound care, drain care, injections, or IV anything
- Physical, occupational, or speech therapy
- Clinical assessment or vital-sign monitoring for a medical record
- Deciding whether a symptom warrants a return to hospital
- Filling or altering a medication list
Most transition-home patients need both: a home health agency for the clinical piece and us for the hours in between. We work alongside home health regularly and will coordinate schedules with them directly.