You are the one who knows where the pills are, which chair she wants after lunch, and how to settle him when the evening turns confusing. Respite care exists so you can hand that off for a while without the routine falling apart. A screened Golden Touch caregiver comes to your loved one's home in Hartford, West Hartford, Glastonbury or any of the Greater Hartford towns we serve, learns the day the way you run it, and keeps it running while you are away.
Taking a break is not a sign you are failing. It is the part of the plan that keeps you able to do the rest of it. Family caregivers who never get a break wear down, get sick, and eventually cannot continue. A standing afternoon each week, an overnight so you can sleep, or two weeks of cover while you take the trip you keep postponing all protect your ability to keep showing up.
We are a licensed Connecticut non-medical homemaker and companion agency with more than 20 years of caregiving experience on our team. Care can usually start within 24 hours, and a Care Coordinator answers after hours. Call (860) 393-1055 or request a free consultation.
What in-home respite care is, and what it is not
Respite care is short-term relief for the person who usually does the caring. The care itself does not change. Your mother still gets breakfast, her shower, her medication reminder and someone to talk to at four o'clock. What changes is who is doing it, for a few hours, a night, or a couple of weeks.
In-home respite means all of this happens in the house your loved one already knows. No bag to pack, no strange building, no rough adjustment when you come back. Golden Touch is a non-medical agency: our caregivers help with daily living, companionship, meals and the household, and we work around any home health or hospice visits rather than replacing them.
Respite vs. regular home care
The tasks overlap almost completely. Regular home care is a standing plan built around your parent's needs. Respite is built around your absence: a specific weekend, your own hospital stay, the ten days you will be in Florida. Many families start with respite and later keep a standing weekly visit.
Respite at home vs. adult day programs and facility stays
Adult day centers offer a structured program outside the home, which suits some seniors and overwhelms others. A short stay in a care facility gives a longer break but means moving your loved one out and back again. In-home respite keeps the bed, the kitchen and the neighbors the same, and the hours are yours to set.
What a day of respite care looks like at home
Say you are leaving Thursday morning for a long weekend in Vermont, and your father, who has early dementia, lives with you in Wethersfield.
The caregiver arrives before you leave, so the handoff happens in person. She already has your notes: coffee first, then the reminder about the blue pill organizer, then the news. Breakfast is the oatmeal he likes, made the way you make it. She helps him wash and dress at his pace.
Late morning is the walk to the end of the street or a drive to the pharmacy. Lunch, then the nap he claims he does not take. In the afternoon she brings out the photo albums or sits with him through the ballgame. When he asks where you are for the third time, she answers the same calm way each time, because you told her that arguing makes it worse.
Dinner is early. She leaves the kitchen the way she found it, writes a few lines about the day, and texts you so you are not wondering. If you booked overnight cover, she stays, checks on him when he gets up, and is there when he wakes.
What respite care includes
Respite covers the same non-medical help your loved one would get from any of our services, folded into whatever hours you need. Tell us what you do in a normal day and we will do it the same way.
- Personal care: bathing, showering, dressing, grooming and help in the bathroom
- Meals cooked the way your loved one likes them, plus snacks and reminders to drink water
- Medication reminders on the usual schedule (we remind and prompt, we never administer)
- Light housekeeping, laundry and keeping the kitchen in order
- Companionship: conversation, games, a walk, a favorite show, church or a visit with friends
- Safe mobility and transfers, with an eye on fall risks around the home
- Overnight relief, weekend and holiday cover, and blocks of a few days to a few weeks
- Post-hospital support when your loved one first comes home and you cannot be there
Who respite care is for
Most families who call us for respite are not in a crisis yet. They are tired in a way a good night's sleep no longer fixes. Some are spouses in their seventies caring for a husband or wife around the clock. Some are adult children in Manchester or Newington who moved a parent in and still work full time.
Respite for seniors with dementia is our most common request, because memory loss makes it nearly impossible to leave someone alone, even for an hour. It is also common during hospice, and after surgery or a stroke, when a parent comes home needing more hands than one person has.
Planned respite
The trip, the wedding, the standing Tuesday afternoon, the week you finally have your own knee done. You call ahead, we build the schedule, the caregiver meets your loved one while you are still home, and you leave knowing who is in the house.
Emergency respite
The 6 a.m. call because you have the flu, the funeral two states away, your own hospital stay. Care can usually start within 24 hours, and our Care Coordinator answers after hours. Keep a one-page sheet of the routine, medications and contacts somewhere easy to find, so a caregiver can step in fast.
If taking a break feels like letting them down
Almost every family caregiver we meet says some version of the same thing: nobody else can do it right, and they would feel guilty leaving. Both feelings are honest. Neither is a reason to keep going without rest. Caregiver burnout does not announce itself. It shows up as snapping at your mother over nothing, skipping your own appointments, and then getting sick yourself, at which point there is no plan at all.
If your parent says they do not need help, introduce the caregiver as help for you rather than for them. "Someone is coming so I can get to my own appointment" lands better than "you need a sitter." Start with a shorter visit while you are home. Most of the resistance fades once the caregiver is a familiar face.
How Golden Touch does respite care differently
The fear underneath most respite questions is simple: what if something goes wrong while I am gone? Visits have a four-hour minimum, and overnight or multi-day cover is scheduled in longer blocks.
One hand-matched caregiver, met in advance
We match a caregiver to your loved one's personality and needs. For a planned break, the same caregiver covers the whole stretch whenever we can, so your mother is not meeting someone new on day three. If the fit is not right, we re-match at no charge.
Screened, backed up, and reachable after hours
Golden Touch is a licensed, bonded and insured Connecticut homemaker and companion agency, and every caregiver is background-checked before setting foot in a client's home. If your assigned caregiver falls ill, we cover the shift with someone briefed on the routine, and we tell you. Our office is open Monday to Friday, 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM, and a Care Coordinator answers after hours.
The handoff: how we learn the routine
Before the first visit we sit down with you and go through the day: wake time, meals, what he will and will not eat, the medication schedule, what calms him and what sets him off, who to call. Many families keep all of this in a notebook on the kitchen counter. The more that is written down, the less lives only in your head.
How respite fits with our other services
Respite is less a separate kind of care than a reason for care. During your break, your loved one gets whatever mix they need: companion care for company and a watchful eye, personal care for bathing and dressing, homemaker services to keep meals and laundry going.
If your parent cannot be alone at night, overnight cover becomes live-in or 24-hour care for the length of your trip. Families caring for someone with dementia or Alzheimer's, or sitting with a loved one on hospice, often try respite first and then keep a few standing hours a week. Someone recovering after surgery may only need cover until they are steady on their feet, and a family sitting with a loved one on hospice may want it for the whole stretch.
Paying for respite care in Connecticut
We do not post rates online because a four-hour afternoon and a two-week overnight stretch are very different things. You will get a clear quote on your first call, once we know the hours, the level of help and whether nights are involved.
Most respite is private pay. Long-term care insurance often covers non-medical care from a licensed agency. VA benefits may apply for an eligible veteran or surviving spouse. Medicaid, through the Connecticut Home Care Program for Elders, can cover in-home care for some seniors, subject to verification.
Two things worth knowing. Medicare does not pay for non-medical care at home, including respite. And Connecticut runs a Statewide Respite Care Program for families caring for someone with a dementia diagnosis, within income and asset limits, applied for through the regional Area Agency on Aging.
How to arrange respite care in Greater Hartford
Call (860) 393-1055 or request a free consultation online. Tell us when you need cover and what a normal day looks like, and we will tell you honestly whether respite fits and give you a clear quote.
Next comes a free in-home consultation, where a Care Coordinator meets your loved one, walks through the routine, and writes it all down. Then we match a caregiver and, when there is time, arrange for them to meet your parent while you are still home. If there is not time, we start anyway.
Our office is on Park Street in Hartford, and our caregivers travel across Greater Hartford and beyond: West Hartford, Bloomfield and Windsor, East Hartford, Manchester and Vernon, Newington, Wethersfield, Rocky Hill and New Britain, down the river to Middletown, Cromwell and Portland, and out to Farmington, Avon and Simsbury. Wherever you are, the routine stays at home and the rest goes to you.
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 you need: a four-hour afternoon costs less than a full day, and every visit has a four-hour minimum.
- The level of care: companionship and light housekeeping at one end, hands-on personal care with bathing, transfers and continence help at the other.
- Days versus nights: overnight cover, and live-in or 24-hour cover for a multi-day trip, are scheduled and quoted differently from daytime visits.
- The length of the block: a single weekend, a standing weekly afternoon and a two-week vacation each shape the quote.
- How you pay: private pay, long-term care insurance, VA benefits and Medicaid each work differently, 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.
In-home respite with Golden Touch vs. Short-term stay in a facility
| Aspect | In-home respite with Golden Touch | Short-term stay in a facility |
|---|---|---|
| Where your loved one sleeps | Their own bed, their own routine | An unfamiliar room, often shared |
| Who provides the care | One hand-matched caregiver, the same person across the break whenever possible | A rotating staff on shifts |
| Settling back afterward | Nothing to adjust; you simply come home | Often a rough re-adjustment, especially with dementia |
| Length of the break | From a four-hour visit to a few weeks, hours you set | Set by the facility, often with a minimum stay |
| What is included | Personal care, meals, companionship, housekeeping and reminders, all non-medical | Room, board and group activities, with skilled staff on site |
| How fast it can start | Usually within 24 hours | Depends on bed availability and paperwork |
