Providing compassionate and professional senior home care in Fairfax, VA and the surrounding areas.
Providing compassionate and professional senior home care in Fairfax, VA and the surrounding areas.
At Cardinal Home Care, we provide compassionate and professional home care services for seniors of all physical conditions and cognitive abilities. If you or a loved one is recovering from an illness, injury, recent surgery, living with a chronic disability, or just dealing with the natural process of aging, our dedicated caregivers are here to help. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that our clients achieve the best quality of life and to empower individuals to achieve their highest level of social, physical, emotional, and spiritual maturity.
Services are provided throughout Northern Virginia at personal residences, hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities or wherever you or your loved one resides. Services are available for a few hours a day to 24-hour live-in care. We assure you peace of mind that your loved one is getting the highest level of care possible, with experienced, caring and compassionate caregivers. Our goal is to be the premier provider of professional caregiving services by offering exceptional customer service, quality caregivers, and compassionate care. Our clients are our priority!
Live-in home care in Fairfax, VA gives your loved one a caregiver who lives right there in the house, so they can stay in the home they know and love for as long as safely possible. Cardinal Home Care provides this non-medical care for seniors in Fairfax and all across Northern Virginia.
Our services run from a few hours a day to 24-hour live-in care, and our caregivers are fully vetted, professional and licensed. For a lot of families, live-in care is what lets a parent or spouse put off a move into a facility, which is often a very emotionally difficult decision to make. This page walks you through what a typical day looks like, what our caregivers help with, and how getting started works, one step at a time.
A live-in caregiver in Fairfax, VA becomes part of your loved one's everyday life. One caregiver stays in the home through the day and the evening, sleeps there at night, and is close by in the morning when your mom or dad wakes up. Your loved one gets to know one familiar face, and that person gets to know them right back.
That steadiness means a lot to us. Our visits typically take place on a set schedule to ensure your loved one has the same caretaker each time, and that gives the two of them a real chance to build a strong connection.
The caregiver learns, over time, how your dad takes his coffee, which chair your mom likes for reading, and when an afternoon walk would do everyone some good. Those small details add up to days that feel like your loved one's own.
Daily life at home settles into a calmer rhythm that way. Your loved one keeps a routine with someone who already knows it, and you always know who's in the house tonight. Someone they trust is there for breakfast, for bedtime and for all the little moments in between.
What sets us apart from other agencies is our commitment to client care. Read more about our mission, vision and values!
Around-the-clock care at Cardinal Home Care is provided in shifts or by live-in caregivers, depending on the situation. Both give your loved one someone in the home day and night. The difference comes down to how the night goes.
The caregiver sleeps at night with 24 hour live in care. Federal labor rules describe a live-in worker as someone who lives, works and sleeps in the home for long stretches, such as five days or 120 hours a week, and sleep and meal times can be set aside from working hours by agreement. Any time the caregiver gets up to help counts as work time.
The live-in arrangement works best, for that reason, when your loved one mostly sleeps through the night and there's a quiet room in the house where the caregiver can rest.
Shift care is the better fit for someone who needs an awake caregiver all night long, as some people living with dementia do. Our 24-hour care page explains how hourly and live-in home care compare, along with the rules that go with having a caregiver live in.
Live-in senior care covers the whole day, from getting up and dressed in the morning to settling in at night. Here's what our caregivers help with:
Considering home care in the Fairfax VA area? Learn how we can help your aging loved one live their best life in the safety of their home.
We care for seniors of all physical conditions and cognitive abilities. Live-in care often fits someone recovering from an illness, injury or recent surgery, someone living with a chronic disability or memory loss, or someone just dealing with the natural process of aging who has reached the point where being alone at night no longer feels safe.
It helps the whole family, too. The main caregiver is often a spouse or family member who doesn't realize the toll full-time caregiving can take on their own physical and mental well-being. A live-in caregiver lets a husband sleep through the night again, or lets a daughter go back to simply being a daughter.
Our respite care for family caregivers is a good place to start when a shorter break is all you need for now.
Live-in care is also for families who want to avoid a move into a facility. That choice is often a very emotionally difficult one, and having help in the home gives your loved one another way to get the care they need right where they already live.
Starting live-in care takes a few simple steps, and you can go at whatever pace feels right for your family:
We keep in touch with you after that, both to help with scheduling and to keep an eye on how your loved one is doing. Care plans can increase or decrease as needs change, so live-in care can grow or ease back over time.
You'll reach Dale, our owner, or one of our dedicated office staff whenever you reach out, and every one of them is familiar with every client and caregiver. That personal touch is a big part of our commitment to client care. One family put it this way: "No brush offs from receptionist, never struggling to remember who we were."
Having someone live in the house is a big step, and we take it seriously. Our caregivers are fully vetted, professional and licensed, and their training meets state and federal regulations. Caregivers who support people with memory loss receive dementia-specific training, so they can handle memory and behavior changes with patience and skill.
Virginia sets clear rules for licensed home care organizations. They can't hire anyone convicted of the crimes the law lists, they must get a criminal record clearance for each new employee within 30 days of hiring, and they must keep drug-free workplace policies.
Your loved one's privacy matters, too. Home care providers follow HIPAA and keep personal information confidential, and you can set clear guidelines with us about communication and access to the home.
Dale has worked in healthcare for nearly 30 years, and he launched Cardinal Home Care in 2019 to help seniors stay in the comfort of their own homes. One family wrote that our scheduling "has made sure that someone is with her 24/7/365." Another said Dale "has personally been involved with each of his caregivers, his client and their family," and you can read more kind words from the families we serve anytime.
Read the kind words from previous clients. Our testimonials help families discover how dedicated we are to customer satisfaction.
We accept private pay and long-term care insurance for our services. Pricing for your loved one's care plan comes straight from our office, based on the help they need.
Live-in care cost in Northern Virginia depends on the care plan, so it helps to see what families usually weigh it against. A typical non-medical caregiver cost $35 an hour across the country in 2025, a typical assisted living community cost $6,200 a month, and a shared room in a nursing home ran about $315 a day, or close to $115,000 a year.
Fairfax families often look at those numbers right alongside the bigger question of where Mom or Dad will be happiest. Live-in care keeps your loved one in their own home, with their own kitchen, their own neighbors and one caregiver who knows them well.
Our office is on Jermantown Road in Fairfax, and we provide live-in care across Northern Virginia, from Arlington and Fairfax to Loudoun and Prince William Counties. That includes Arlington, Alexandria, Leesburg, Reston, Herndon, Manassas, Ashburn, Falls Church, McLean and the surrounding communities.
About 16% of Fairfax County's residents are 65 or older, and in the City of Fairfax it's about 14%. That's a lot of neighbors with a parent or spouse who wants to stay in the house they've called home for years.
Plenty of them live on their own. About one in five Fairfax County residents 65 and older lives alone, more than 36,000 people in all. Living alone can mean fewer people close by to help, especially in the evening and overnight.
Families here juggle a lot, too, with jobs, commutes and kids of their own, and most simply can't be in the house around the clock. A live-in caregiver covers those hours, so your loved one has someone with them morning, noon and night.
Choosing live-in care is a big decision, and you can make it at your own pace. A caregiver who lives in the home can make staying there possible, whether your loved one is coming home after a hospital stay or nights alone have started to feel like too much. Take your time, talk it over as a family, and when you're ready, fill out our short form and let's get started with a free consultation.
Our around-the-clock care is provided in shifts or by live-in caregivers, depending on the situation. A live-in caregiver stays in the home and sleeps there at night. Shift-based 24-hour care is the better fit for someone who needs an awake caregiver all night, as some people living with dementia do.
Yes. Live-in care includes a sleep period for the caregiver, along with meal breaks. Those times can be set aside from working hours by agreement under federal labor rules, and any time the caregiver is called to help counts as work.
We accept private pay and long-term care insurance. Pricing for your loved one's care plan comes straight from our office, based on the help they need.
It begins with a free consultation, where we learn about your loved one's needs, background and interests. We create a personalized care plan and match your loved one with one of our professional caregivers. One of our client care managers is there on the first day to introduce the caregiver and make sure it's a proper fit.
In most cases, yes. Visits typically take place on a set schedule so your loved one has the same caretaker each time, which gives the two of them the chance to build a strong connection.
Non-medical caregivers can't give medications in most cases, but they can remind your loved one when it's time to take them.
Yes. Our caregivers receive dementia-specific training and help with routines, redirection, safety monitoring and meaningful activities. Shift-based 24-hour care is the better fit for someone who needs an awake caregiver through the night.
Cardinal Home Care provides 24-hour home care, with compassionate caregivers that promote safety and happiness. This gives you peace of mind knowing your loved ones are covered.
