What Does a Private Duty Caregiver Do in an Assisted Living Facility?

A private duty caregiver provides scheduled, one-to-one assistance to an individual assisted living resident. The caregiver may help with personal routines, companionship, supervision, meals, and nighttime support, but does not replace facility staff or provide services outside the caregiver’s training and non-medical care plan.

What Does a Private Duty Caregiver Do for an Assisted Living Resident?

Private duty caregiver duties in assisted living focus on the specific needs of one resident. The caregiver works according to an agency care plan, the resident’s consent, the assisted living community’s policies, and an agreed schedule.

Depending on the assessment, duties may include:

  • Providing reminders and routine support
  • Accompanying the resident to activities
  • Offering conversation and shared activities
  • Helping with meals and hydration routines
  • Maintaining the resident’s immediate living area
  • Providing reassurance and scheduled supervision
  • Communicating approved concerns to the agency or facility contact

Indiana licenses Personal Care Services Agencies to provide attendant care, homemaker services, and companion services. These services can include daily assistance, meal preparation, laundry, housekeeping, transportation, escort support, and fellowship.

The caregiver serves the resident named in the service agreement. They do not supervise other residents, answer general facility call lights, or take over the community’s staffing duties. National Center for Assisted Living guidance states that private caregivers are not assisted living employees and should not be counted toward facility staffing requirements.

A broader explanation is available through private duty care in assisted living facilities.

Can a Private Duty Caregiver Help With Activities of Daily Living?

Yes, private duty caregiver ADL assistance may include bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, eating, and appropriate mobility support. The exact tasks depend on the resident’s assessed needs, caregiver training, safety requirements, facility rules, and written care plan.

Examples may include:

  • Helping the resident get dressed
  • Assisting with bathing or shower routines
  • Supporting oral hygiene and grooming
  • Providing toileting assistance
  • Helping with meal setup or feeding
  • Assisting with walking or transfers within established safety guidelines
  • Preparing the resident for bed or morning activities

Nana Cares describes its personal care services as non-medical help with bathing, dressing, toileting, grooming, mobility, meal-related needs, and other everyday routines.

Personal and attendant care in Indianapolis should supplement the resident’s assisted living services. The facility and home care agency should clearly identify who performs each task so essential care is not missed or unnecessarily duplicated.

Can a Private Duty Caregiver Provide Companionship or Overnight Support?

Yes, private duty companion care in assisted living may provide conversation, shared activities, supervision, reminders, reassurance, and support with maintaining a familiar routine. Nana Cares describes companion care as non-medical support centered on social interaction, supervision, and daily routines.

Overnight support may include:

  • Helping the resident prepare for bed
  • Providing reassurance when the resident wakes
  • Assisting with scheduled bathroom routines
  • Supporting safe movement within the approved care plan
  • Offering reminders for water or other non-medical routines
  • Helping with morning preparation

Companion care in Indianapolis and overnight care in Indianapolis remain resident-specific services. An overnight caregiver is not providing continuous nursing, emergency monitoring, or coverage for the wider community.

What Is Outside a Private Duty Caregiver’s Non-Medical Scope?

Private duty caregiver scope limitations exclude skilled nursing, medical treatment, clinical assessments, medication administration, wound care, injections, and therapy. Indiana separately licenses home health agencies to provide nursing and therapeutic services, while Personal Care Services Agencies provide attendant, homemaker, and companion care.

A Nana Cares caregiver also cannot:

  • Diagnose a medical condition
  • Change a medication or dosage
  • Perform an unsafe transfer
  • Provide hospital-level observation
  • Respond as an emergency medical provider
  • Fulfill the facility’s required staffing levels
  • Accept responsibility for residents outside the care plan

Sudden symptoms, significant changes, injuries, or immediate safety threats should be directed to facility clinical staff, the resident’s healthcare provider, or 911 as appropriate.

More information about permitted services is available through home care services inside an assisted living facility (/home-care-services-inside-assisted-living-facility/).

Discuss a Resident’s Private Duty Care Needs With Nana Cares

Assisted living communities, residents, and authorized representatives can contact Nana Cares to schedule a free needs assessment and discuss which non-medical tasks may fit the resident’s care plan.

Nana Cares provides personal care, companion care, homemaker services, respite care, and overnight support across Indianapolis and Central Indiana. Services depend on assessment findings, resident consent, facility policies, safety, payer authorization, scheduling needs, and caregiver availability.