Caring for an elderly parent or loved one is one of the most demanding and emotionally exhausting responsibilities you’ll ever shoulder. Preferred Care at Home understands that you need a break, not because you don’t care, but because you care so much. We provide compassionate respite care services that give you time to rest and recharge, knowing your loved one is in trusted hands.
Preferred Care at Home has served Westchester County families since 1984. Our caregivers undergo a rigorous 7-step screening process that includes background checks, skills assessments, and personality evaluations. We’re a family-run business in its third generation of home care professionals, committed to providing affordable, reliable care throughout Yonkers and across New York State.
What sets us apart is how we match caregivers to your loved ones based on personality, not just availability. We understand that respite care is about building trust and ensuring quality time with a compassionate caregiver who truly connects with your family. Our Transparency Room technology lets you monitor care remotely, giving you peace of mind even when you’re taking that much-needed break.
Companion and Homemaker Care services provide the emotional support and social engagement elderly people need to combat loneliness and isolation. In Yonkers, where many seniors live alone after losing a spouse, having a trusted friend to talk with, play cards, or simply sit and visit can make all the difference. Our caregivers become genuine companions who bring conversation, laughter, and meaningful connection.
Beyond companionship, these services include accompanying your loved one to appointments, running errands, and participating in light activities they enjoy. For family caregivers feeling overwhelmed by the constant demands of providing care, companion services offer relief. You can relax, knowing someone trustworthy is there to offer your loved one safety and emotional support.
Personal care involves hands-on assistance with activities of daily living, which often leave family caregivers physically and emotionally drained. Our trained caregivers provide dignified, compassionate support customized to their specific needs. We handle the demanding personal care tasks that make caregiving so exhausting.
Many adult children in Westchester County struggle with the intimacy of providing personal care for their own parents. Our caregivers step in with professionalism and respect, maintaining your loved one’s dignity while giving you the break you desperately need. Services are available from just one hour to 24 hours per day, so you can get exactly the level of respite you need.
Live-in care services provide the ultimate respite solution for family caregivers who are physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted from round-the-clock responsibilities. When you need extended time away, our 24-hour caregivers offer continuous supervision, personal care, and companionship in the security and privacy of your loved one’s home.
Our live-in caregivers are carefully matched to your loved one’s personality and needs. They handle all personal care, prepare meals, assist with medications, and respond to emergencies, so you can get the extended break you need. For Yonkers families managing dementia or Alzheimer’s care, live-in services provide the constant safety monitoring that’s impossible for one person to maintain alone.
Homemaker services take the burden of household management off your shoulders. Our trained caregivers handle grocery shopping, laundry, tidying, and meal planning. When you’re feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of what needs to get done, homemaker care provides practical assistance that truly makes a difference.
For family caregivers in Yonkers juggling jobs, children, and elderly parent care, these services mean you can focus on the emotional connection with your loved one rather than constantly worrying about whether there’s food in the house or clean laundry in the drawer. Our caregivers maintain a safe, comfortable home environment while giving you the mental space to breathe.
We take a thoughtful, personalized approach to ensure your loved one receives the care they deserve.
Step 01
Free phone consultation to answer your questions with no obligation.
Step 02
We meet in your home to understand unique needs and routines.
Step 03
Creating a personalized plan addressing specific dementia needs.
Step 04
Selecting caregivers whose personality aligns with your loved one’s.
Step 05
Regular check-ins and access to our Transparency Room portal.
Family caregivers throughout Yonkers and Westchester County face specific challenges that make respite care not just helpful, but essential for their own health and well-being
Challenge
Description
How We Help
Caregiver Burnout from 24/7 Responsibility
What It Looks Like
The constant demands of elderly parent care leave no time for your own family, health appointments, or emotional recovery. Westchester County’s high cost of living means many families can’t afford to stop working, yet caregiving responsibilities never pause.
How We Help
Our flexible respite care services provide scheduled breaks so you can recharge physically and emotionally while trained caregivers maintain consistent, compassionate care
Challenge
Guilt About Needing Help
What It Looks Like
Many adult children in Yonkers feel they should be able to handle everything alone, leading to exhaustion, resentment, and declining health. Cultural expectations around family responsibility make it even harder to admit you’re overwhelmed.
How We Help
We normalize the need for respite by providing professional caregivers who treat your loved one with dignity and respect, proving that asking for assistance doesn’t mean you care any less; it means you care enough to prevent burnout.
Challenge
Difficulty Finding Trustworthy Caregivers
What It Looks Like
Previous experiences with unreliable or poorly trained caregivers make families hesitant to try again. Safety concerns about letting strangers into your loved one’s home create additional stress and anxiety.
How We Help
Our 7-step screening process includes background checks, reference verification, and personality assessments, ensuring every caregiver is insured, trained, and committed to providing safe, reliable care you can trust.
Challenge
Balancing Work and Caregiving
What It Looks Like
Westchester County professionals struggle to maintain demanding careers while managing elderly parent care, medical appointments, and emergency situations. Missing work for caregiving responsibilities threatens job security and financial stability.
How We Help
We schedule respite care around your work commitments, providing consistent assistance during business hours or overnight, so you can focus on your career without constant phone calls and crises interrupting your day.
Challenge
Caring for Loved Ones with Alzheimer’s or Dementia
What It Looks Like
Memory loss and behavioral challenges require constant supervision that’s physically impossible for one person. Wandering risks, medication management, and safety monitoring create overwhelming anxiety for family caregivers.
How We Help
Our dementia and Alzheimer’s care services provide specially trained caregivers who understand behavioral management, safety protocols, and cognitive engagement activities, giving you peace of mind during respite breaks.
Challenge
Physical Strain from Mobility Assistance
What It Looks Like
Lifting, transferring, and providing physical support for elderly people leads to back injuries, fatigue, and declining health for family caregivers. The demanding physical aspects of personal care become unsustainable over time.
How We Help
Our caregivers are trained in proper mobility assistance, transfer techniques, and physical support, taking the strain off your body while ensuring your loved one receives safe, dignified help with bathing, dressing, and movement throughout their home.
Our team lives in the communities we serve. When you call, you reach neighbors who understand New York State home care regulations and local resources.
We Serve:
Yonkers
Mount Vernon
Peekskill
Cortlandt Manor
Yorktown Heights
Mahopac
Carmel
Brewster
Cold Spring
Garrison
Putnam Valley
Patterson
Croton on Hudson
Buchanan
Mohegan Lake
Somers
North Salem
Katonah
Golden Bridge
Respite care costs in Yonkers typically range from $25 to $35 per hour for companion and personal care services, with live-in care offering more affordable 24-hour coverage at $250 to $350 daily. Several factors affect pricing, including the level of care needed, scheduling (overnight or weekend care may cost more), and whether specialized services like dementia care are required. We provide free consultations and transparent pricing with no hidden fees, and we’ll work with your budget to create a respite schedule that’s both effective and affordable for your family.
We’ve served Westchester County families for over 40 years with a family-run approach that’s now in its third generation, not a corporate chain. Every caregiver undergoes our rigorous 7-step screening process and is matched to your loved one based on personality and experience, not just who’s available. Our Transparency Room technology gives you real-time access to caregiver notes, schedules, and updates from anywhere, providing peace of mind while you’re taking your respite break. Plus, we guarantee caregiver consistency and offer services starting from just one hour, making quality respite care accessible and affordable.
Choose Companion and Homemaker Care if your loved one is relatively independent but needs supervision, social engagement, and assistance with errands and appointments. This works well for respite when you just need someone trustworthy present for a few hours. Choose personal care if your loved one needs help with bathing, dressing, mobility, medication reminders, or other hands-on activities of daily living that are physically and emotionally demanding for you. Many Yonkers families find that combining both services gives them the most effective respite, with personal care covering the demanding morning routine and Companion and Homemaker Care providing afternoon engagement.
Most families can begin respite care within 3 to 5 days of initial contact, though urgent situations can often be accommodated sooner. The timeline depends on scheduling availability, the complexity of your loved one’s care needs, and how quickly we complete the assessment and caregiver matching process. For planned respite, we recommend contacting us 2 to 3 weeks in advance. Westchester County families benefit from our local presence, which means faster response times than companies coordinating from out of state.
If you’re noticing physical exhaustion that doesn’t improve with rest, feeling resentful or irritable toward your loved one, neglecting your own health appointments or relationships, or experiencing anxiety and depression related to caregiving responsibilities, you need respite care now, not eventually. Other signs include your children complaining about never seeing you, your job performance suffering due to caregiving stress, or your own health declining because you’re not sleeping or eating properly. Yonkers family caregivers often wait until they’re in crisis to seek help, but respite care works best as prevention, giving you regular breaks before burnout damages your health and relationships.
Yes, we provide overnight and weekend respite care throughout Yonkers and Westchester County. Overnight care typically runs from 8 PM to 8 AM, giving you a whole night’s sleep while a trained caregiver monitors your loved one, assists with nighttime bathroom needs, and responds to any emergencies. Weekend respite lets you take extended time for yourself, spending quality time with your family, taking a short vacation, or simply resting at home without caregiving responsibilities. Our live-in care services offer the most comprehensive weekend coverage, with caregivers providing continuous 24-hour care so you can truly disconnect and recharge.
Many elderly people initially resist outside help, but our personality-matching approach and gradual introduction process help build trust and acceptance. We start with shorter visits to let your loved one get comfortable with their caregiver, and we prioritize consistency so genuine relationships develop naturally. Our Yonkers caregivers are trained in respectful communication and understand the emotional difficulty of accepting assistance. Often, once your loved one experiences the companionship, engaging conversation, and gentle support our caregivers provide, resistance transforms into genuine friendship and something they look forward to rather than dread.
Absolutely. Caregiver burnout is one of the primary reasons families ultimately place loved ones in nursing facilities, not because the elderly person needs that level of care, but because the family caregiver physically and emotionally can’t continue. Regular respite care extends your ability to provide at-home care by preventing the exhaustion, health problems, and resentment that make caregiving unsustainable. Westchester County’s high nursing home costs ($12,000 to $15,000 monthly) make this especially important; affordable respite services preserve aging in place while protecting your own wellbeing, often delaying or completely avoiding institutional care.
We understand that emergencies happen, such as a sudden illness, an out-of-town work obligation, or a family crisis that demands your immediate attention. While we prefer advance notice for optimal caregiver matching, we maintain relationships with experienced, screened caregivers throughout Westchester County who can respond quickly. Call our office immediately, and we’ll do everything possible to arrange coverage within 24 to 48 hours. For families concerned about future emergencies, we recommend establishing respite care on a regular schedule now; having a familiar caregiver your loved one already trusts makes emergency situations far less stressful for everyone involved.
Our non-medical respite care services include medication reminders, assistance with following medical instructions (such as ensuring your loved one stays hydrated or takes prescribed rest), and coordination with healthcare providers. For more complex medical needs, we can arrange licensed nursing visits through our skilled care services. Many Yonkers families find that combining non-medical respite with periodic skilled nursing visits gives them comprehensive support. We’ll assess your loved one’s medical needs during the consultation and recommend the appropriate level of care for safe, effective respite that addresses both medical and personal care requirements.