Senior companion services are a great way to mix day care and night care and help reduce boredom, anxiety, loneliness, and fear of being left alone.  All of these are primary reasons that many seniors who live alone finally give up and make the stressful decision to leave their own home… something they otherwise don’t want to do.

Senior companion services are generally available 5-7 days per week and 24 hours per day.  Running companion services in shifts with days off give the at home senior some variety of people and help develop many good and necessary friendships.

Finding good senior companionship isn’t all that hard.  SeniorMag’s Directory of Home Care Providers is a great place to start.

As you can imagine however, personalities need to be taken into consideration.  Some people just manage to blend perfectly while others, even though terrific people, just seem to rub each other the wrong way.  

Hiring companion services is not like hiring a best friend by any means.  Companions are hired to come in, often live with the senior or at least spend all day or all night.  They often get to know each other quite well but professionalism is always the hallmark of a good companion.  

See our article on Interviewing a Home Care company and worker before starting the process and do not feel that you have to hire the first person that comes along.  There will be quite a bit of contact between the senior and the companion worker and you want to make sure that both are comfortable with the situation.