Companion Care vs Personal Care
Companion care is company and help with the day. Personal care adds hands-on help with bathing, dressing and getting around, and one caregiver can often do both.
Companion care
Company, meals, housekeeping, errands, rides and reminders.
Personal care
Everything above, plus bathing, dressing, the bathroom and grooming.
Companion care covers company, meals, the house, errands and reminders, and personal care adds hands-on help with bathing, dressing and the bathroom; Endurance Home Care provides both, often through the same caregiver.
One is help with the day. The other adds help with getting washed, dressed and around the house.
Companion care is the help around your parent’s day: company, meals, the house, errands, rides and reminders. Personal care includes all of that and adds hands-on help with bathing, dressing, the bathroom and moving safely around the house. Many families find they need a bit of each, and the mix can change as the weeks go on. We provide personal care in Connecticut and New Jersey. In New York we provide companion care, by the hour, overnight, live-in or around the clock.
If you’re also wondering about nursing, that’s a separate kind of care, and it’s explained in how home care differs from home health care. For more on the companionship side, start with our plain guide to companion care.
Side by side
| Where it shows up | Companion care | Personal care |
|---|---|---|
| The day | Company and conversation, meals and housekeeping. | All of that, with hands-on help when it's needed. |
| Getting out | Errands and rides to appointments. | The same, plus help getting washed, dressed and ready to go. |
| Reminders | Reminders through the day, including medications. | The same reminders. |
| Hands-on help | Not included. | Bathing, dressing, the bathroom, grooming and moving safely around the house. |
When companion care is the help you need
Companion care suits the weeks when the hard part is the day itself. Your mother is on her own for long stretches and would enjoy the company. Meals have become simpler than they should be, the mail is piling up, or she’s stopped driving and appointments are harder to reach. Company, a cooked meal, a ride and a reminder help with all of that. For a typical day, see what a companion caregiver does.
When hands-on help is needed
Personal care comes in when the hard part is getting washed, dressed or around the house. Perhaps the shower has started to feel daunting, buttons have become slow, or getting up from a chair takes a steady arm. A caregiver helps with these things at your parent’s pace and with care for their privacy. If you’re still working out what’s changed, signs your parent may need more help has some things worth noticing.
One caregiver, one schedule
Many households start with companion care and add personal care later, or need a little of each from the start. Both run on any schedule, from a few hours a week to live-in or around the clock, and adding hands-on help doesn’t mean changing agencies, and often not even caregivers.
One schedule, both kinds of help
A week that starts as company, meals and errands can add hands-on personal care from Endurance later, and often the caregiver already in the house is the one who adds it.
Start where the need is
Begin with the help your parent needs now. Neither kind of care has to come first.
By the hour
Help at the times of day that are hardest, a few hours at a time.
Around the clock
Caregivers work awake shifts, so someone is there through the day and the night.
Live-in
A caregiver lives in the home, with agreed working hours and a proper night’s rest.
Reviewed monthly
The care plan is reviewed on a customized monthly cadence, which is the mechanism that changes the mix as needs grow. Your Care Manager keeps you posted in between.
What it costs
What moves the number is the week itself: how many hours, which days, whether nights are part of it, and the kind of help those hours hold. Four afternoons of company is a different number from overnight help that includes getting washed and dressed.
The published Connecticut figures don’t split companion care from personal care at all, which is itself the answer: the service label is rarely what moves a bill.
Those are market figures, not an Endurance price list. The bigger driver is hours per week. We’re private pay. We’ll work out a figure once we’ve talked through where care is needed, the schedule, the help your parent needs and any insurance your family has. For more on paying for care, see what home care costs.
Call our care team (203) 936-6847
Questions families ask
What is the difference between companion care and personal care?
Companion care is help around your parent's day: company, meals, housekeeping, errands, rides and reminders. Personal care includes all of that and adds hands-on help with bathing, dressing, the bathroom and grooming. Endurance Home Care provides both as separate services, and many families blend them in one schedule as needs change.
Can the same caregiver provide both companion care and personal care?
Often, yes. Because Endurance Home Care offers both, a schedule can start with company and help around the house and add hands-on personal care later without changing agencies, and often without changing caregivers. The care plan, reviewed through customized monthly assessments, sets the mix, and it's also reviewed whenever your parent's needs change.
Does personal care cost more than companion care?
In Connecticut the published medians sit close together: $37 to $42 per hour for home care per the Long Term Care Navigator 2026 state tables. The bigger cost driver is usually hours per week, not the service type. The hours each week, which days, and whether nights are included all shape the figure, along with whether the help is companion care or hands-on personal care. Endurance Home Care is private pay and prices your own week, so call our care team at (203) 936-6847 for a figure built on your schedule.
Let’s talk about the help your parent needs
Tell us about the week and what’s become hard. We’ll talk through companion care, personal care or a mix of both, and how it would work. Endurance is registered in both Connecticut, as HCA.0002450, and New Jersey. The first conversation is free, and nothing starts until you say so.