For trusted companion care in Highland Park, University Park and the rest of the Park Cities, Senior Care of North Texas is a locally owned, Texas-licensed home care agency (License #020448). Our employee caregivers cook meals, give medication reminders with a log your family can read, make daily check-ins, keep the house tidy, and drive to Snider Plaza, Highland Park Village or the doctor, at one flat $30–34 an hour. Call (214) 550-6533, any hour.
Picture a common situation. A couple in their eighties in a University Park house. Breakfast used to be the anchor of their day: eggs, the paper, the morning pills next to the orange juice. Lately it is tea and toast, the pills get taken some mornings and not others, and their daughter, who lives a few streets away, stops in before work to check. Nobody needs help in the shower yet. What they need is a steady pair of hands for the ordinary parts of the day, and someone who tells the daughter how the morning went. That is companion care for seniors, and this guide covers the four things Park Cities families ask about most.
Which companies provide trusted companion care for seniors in Highland Park and University Park?
Park Cities families are rarely comparing on price alone. They are comparing on who exactly will be sitting at the breakfast table. So the honest answer to "who can we trust?" is a set of questions any agency should answer in plain words. Here they are, with our answers, so you can put the same questions to everyone you call.
| Ask the agency | Why it matters | Our answer |
|---|---|---|
| Who exactly will come to the house? | A different face every week means a stranger every week | One caregiver matched to your parent, on the standing schedule |
| Is that person your employee? | With a contractor or a private hire, your family can end up as the employer | Yes: background-checked, insured and supervised by us |
| Who comes when she is sick or away? | Otherwise the gap lands on the daughter nearby | A replacement who already has the care plan |
| Can we ask for someone else? | Personalities matter at a kitchen table | Yes, at any time, with no explanation required |
| Who comes to the first meeting? | You learn more from a person than from a brochure | Ryan Berry, our co-owner, does every free assessment himself |
| Is the rate published, and can it rise as needs grow? | Levels-of-care pricing can make the same hours cost more later | $30–34 an hour, flat, with no levels of care and no contract |
| What license do you hold? | It tells you what the caregiver may and may not do | Texas Personal Assistance Services, License #020448, non-medical |
How to read this table: the right-hand column is our answer, but the left-hand column is the point. Ask every agency the same seven questions and write the answers down. By the second call, the differences are usually clear.
Who offers medication reminders and daily check-ins for seniors in University Park, Dallas?
We do. Medication reminders are part of most of our Park Cities visits, and they fit naturally into breakfast. The caregiver brings the organizer or blister pack to the table, pours a glass of water, puts food in front of your parent when a dose needs it, watches that the dose is taken and writes it down.
That log is what turns a visit into a real check-in. University Park is a town of grandparents living near their children. Many of our clients here have a son or daughter a few streets away who handles the doctors and the money. Our caregiver handles the mornings, the meals, the medication reminders and the company, and reports to that family member every day. If anything changes, from a skipped meal to a new bruise, you get a call the same day. Our guide to caring for a parent who lives a few streets away covers how families split that work without wearing themselves out.
Who fills the pill organizer?
Not the caregiver. A family member, a pharmacist or a home health nurse fills it. Many Dallas pharmacies prepare sealed blister packs by dose and time, and those work well with reminder visits. Under our non-medical license, caregivers remind and watch. They do not fill organizers, handle loose pills, adjust doses, give injections or make any decision about medication. If your mother refuses a dose, the caregiver never forces it. It goes in the log, and you and her doctor decide what to do.
What "daily" means with a four-hour minimum
Our minimum visit is four hours, so a daily check-in with us is a real visit, not a knock on the door. In a compact town that goes a long way. In Highland Park, a four-hour visit can cover breakfast, the morning doses, one errand and lunch without anyone feeling rushed. Families who want every day covered set a standing morning visit; families who need less choose the mornings with the most doses and handle the rest by phone.
Which senior care company provides meal preparation and light housekeeping in Highland Park, Dallas?
We do, through meal preparation and light housekeeping. In the Park Cities we often start with breakfast, because the morning doses, the first meal and the mood of the day all happen at the same table. A meal visit includes:
- Hot meals cooked fresh in your parent's kitchen, following any written diet guidance from the family or the doctor, seasoned the way your parent likes.
- Prep-ahead: labeled meals cooked in batches for the days between visits.
- Grocery shopping from a list, putting food away and clearing out what has expired.
- Hydration prompts: a gentle reminder to drink water through the visit.
- Company at the table: the caregiver sits down and eats too.
Company at the table is the line families tend to undervalue. A parent who eats alone often settles for tea and toast. When someone pours the tea, sits down and asks about the paper, breakfast becomes a meal again. Your parent gets a say in the menu, and the caregiver notes what goes uneaten so the plan gets better each week. For a couple, cooking for both happens in the same visit, and a couples discount applies when one caregiver helps two people in the same home.
Housekeeping in a two-story Park Cities house
Many Highland Park houses date from the 1920s and 1930s, and even the newer rebuilds keep the pattern: two stories with the bedrooms upstairs. In University Park the large rebuilds also put the primary bedroom upstairs. So light housekeeping there has a quiet job: carrying the laundry basket and fresh linens up and down, so your parent is not carrying them on the stairs. The caregiver also keeps the path from the bed to the bathroom clear of clutter and cords, wipes down the bathroom, does the dishes and takes out the trash. Deep cleaning, windows, carpets and yard work are not part of it. A cleaning company is the right call for those.
If your parent also needs a hand in the shower or getting dressed, that is personal care, at the same hourly rate. Our guide to personal care at home in Highland Park and University Park explains what changes when help becomes hands-on.
Which home care agencies provide senior transportation and errands in the Park Cities?
We do, inside companion visits and as a service of its own, transportation and errands. Errands in the Park Cities are close and pleasant, which helps a parent who has stopped driving keep a routine. The caregiver drives your parent's car or her own, whichever your family prefers, and stays with your parent from the front door back to the front door.
- In Highland Park: Highland Park Village and the pharmacy, the doctor at UT Southwestern or along Lemmon Avenue, the hairdresser, church on Sunday, and a slow loop around Lakeside Park or a bench by the creek on a good afternoon.
- In University Park: Snider Plaza and Preston Center for groceries and the pharmacy, the doctor at Presbyterian or along Lovers Lane, a lap around Caruth Park, and a game or a concert at SMU.
- On days your parent stays in: the caregiver picks up the prescriptions, the dry cleaning and the groceries alone, and puts everything away.
For a parent who has stopped driving, keeping these outings is the difference between a life that continues and one that shrinks to the living room. Our guide to when a parent stops driving in Dallas covers how families rebuild the week around a caregiver who drives. We are not medical transport: a stretcher or a wheelchair van is a different service, and we will help you find one if your parent needs it.
Highland Park or University Park: what changes in the plan?
The same caregivers work both towns, and Preston Hollow across Northwest Highway. The help is the same; the houses and the errands are not.
Highland Park
Highland Park is its own town of a little over two square miles, from Turtle Creek and the Katy Trail on the west to Mockingbird Lane on the north, in the 75205 ZIP code and, along the creek, 75219. Highland Park Village, the Dallas Country Club, Lakeside Park and the town hall on Drexel are the landmarks; the rest is quiet residential streets where a caregiver's car out front for a morning is a normal sight. Along Turtle Creek the picture changes to condominiums with a concierge and an elevator, and the plan then includes building access, parking and a walk on the trail when the weather allows. See home care in Highland Park.
University Park
University Park is the larger of the two Park Cities, running from Mockingbird Lane north to Northwest Highway between the Tollway and Central Expressway, with SMU in its southeast corner. The ZIP codes are 75205 in the south and 75225 in the north. A block here usually mixes compact original houses from the 1930s to 1950s, often with a step at the back door, and big two-story rebuilds. For companion care, that step at the back door matters on every errand, because it is where a steady arm is needed going out and coming home. See home care in University Park.
What does everyday companion help cost in the Park Cities?
Our rate is one flat $30–34 an hour, the same at 9am or 2am, on weekdays or weekends. Major holidays bill at time and a half, and we tell you which days count before you book. The minimum visit is four hours. There is no assessment fee, no registration fee, no long-term contract and no levels-of-care pricing, so the rate does not rise if your parent later needs more help.
Estimated monthly costs from our published in-home care rates for Dallas–Fort Worth, based on about 4.3 weeks a month:
- One four-hour visit a week (4 hours): about $520–590 a month. A good start for errands, groceries and a cooked lunch.
- Three visits a week (12 hours): about $1,560–1,770 a month.
- A breakfast visit every weekday (20 hours): about $2,610–2,960 a month.
- Eight hours a day, five days a week (40 hours): about $5,190–5,880 a month.
Long-term care insurance often covers non-medical home care, and we handle the claim paperwork. Your free assessment ends with an exact quote in writing.
Why do Park Cities families call Senior Care of North Texas?
Because the answers to the questions above are already written down, and they do not change after you sign. In short:
- We are locally owned and independent, not a franchise.
- Our caregivers are employees, background-checked, insured and supervised.
- We match one caregiver to your parent, and you can ask for a different caregiver at any time.
- Ryan Berry, co-owner, comes to the house in Highland Park or University Park for the free assessment, usually the same day or the next morning.
- We are rated 4.9 stars across 44 Google reviews and licensed by the State of Texas, License #020448.
- Care can often start within 24 hours, and the phone is answered 24/7.
Many families begin with one weekly visit of companion care, introduced to a reluctant parent as someone to cook breakfast and drive to Snider Plaza, and add mornings as the routine settles. Call (214) 550-6533 or request a free in-home assessment, and Ryan will write the first plan with you at the kitchen table.
This guide is general information, not medical advice. Questions about medications or your parent's health belong with the physician.
