Choosing Home Care
Personal Care vs. Companion Care: How Families Choose
One is hands-on help with daily routines. The other is company and things to do. Here is how to tell which one fits your family, and when people use both.
By Lilly's Home Health Care Editorial TeamPublished 5 min read
Key takeaways
- Personal care is hands-on help with routines such as bathing, dressing, grooming and getting around the home. Companion care is company, conversation, activities and outings.
- Ask what is hardest right now: a task, or the day itself. A task points to personal care. A quiet, isolated day points to companion care.
- Many families use both. Neither is medical care, and neither replaces a health care provider.
Personal care is hands-on help with the routines of the body: bathing, dressing, grooming, using the bathroom and moving around the home. Companion care is about the day: company, conversation, activities, shared meals and outings. Families often ask which one to start with, and plenty end up using both.
Neither is medical care. Both are non-medical support delivered at home, and the difference is mostly about what is getting hard for your parent right now. This guide shows how to tell, with a side-by-side comparison and a few questions to settle it.
What personal care is
The National Institute on Aging (NIA) describes personal care as help with everyday activities, “also called ‘activities of daily living,’ such as bathing, dressing, grooming, using the toilet, eating, and moving around — for example, getting out of bed and into a chair.”
At Lilly's, personal care covers bathing assistance, dressing and grooming, toileting support, everyday mobility help within the caregiver scope, meal routines, and morning and evening routines. The aim is to make a routine manageable while the person keeps as much say and independence as possible.
What companion care is
Companion care is about connection and everyday engagement: conversation, games and hobbies, walks when they are appropriate, sharing meals, errands and outings, and a dependable presence in the week. It fits when a person is managing the practical parts of the day but the days have become quiet.
The NIA notes that some organizations have volunteers who make short, regular visits to older adults at no cost, and that senior centers and state or local government can help connect families with them. Paid companion visits are another route. The NIA adds that Medicare, Medicaid and private health insurance generally do not cover them, and that some long-term care insurance plans help pay for companion visits.
The two side by side
| Topic | Personal care | Companion care |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Hands-on help with personal routines | Company, engagement and connection |
| Typical tasks | Bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, moving around the home, morning and evening routines | Conversation, games and hobbies, shared meals, walks, errands and outings |
| Often a fit when | A routine has become difficult, unsteady or tiring, or you are doing it every day and need another pair of hands | A parent lives alone, gets out less, or the days are quiet and family cannot be there |
| Closeness of help | Physical and private. Trust and comfort matter a great deal | Social. Personality and shared interests matter a great deal |
| What it is not | Not nursing, therapy or medical treatment | Not medical care or clinical monitoring |
How families choose
Start with what is hardest, not with the name of the service. These questions usually settle it.
- Is the struggle a task? If getting washed, dressed or to the bathroom, or moving safely around the house, has become hard, that points to personal care.
- Is the struggle the day itself? If your parent is managing but alone, quieter, getting out less, or eating by themselves, that points to companion care.
- Is it both? Plenty of families find a morning routine needs hands-on help while the afternoon needs company. That is a combination, and it is common.
- Not sure? Begin with the one that matches the most pressing problem, and check in after a few weeks to see what is helping and what is not.
What a combined day could look like
This is a hypothetical illustration, not a description of a real client or a standard schedule.
- Morning: help getting up, washed and dressed at the pace the person prefers (personal care).
- Late morning: breakfast together and a conversation about the day (companion care).
- Midday: a short grocery errand, with the person choosing what to buy (companion care and transportation and errands).
- Afternoon: a card game or a favorite show, then a quiet routine before family arrives (companion care).
What neither one does
Personal care and companion care are non-medical. Caregivers are not nurses, and they do not provide wound care, injections or therapy, or administer medication. If your parent needs clinical care, that comes from a health care provider. Our guide to non-medical home care and home health care explains where each fits and what Medicare covers.
Questions to ask an agency about either one
Sources
- Services for Older Adults Living at Home (National Institute on Aging; accessed October 11, 2026)
- Home health services (Medicare.gov; accessed October 11, 2026)
