Home Care

What are home care services?

Home care services help people with a frailty or with acute, chronic, palliative or rehabilitative health care needs to independently live in their community and co-ordinate and manage an admission to facility care when living in the community is not a viable alternative.
Home care services include nursing, personal support / homemaker, therapy (including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech language pathology, social work, nutrition / dietetics), medical supplies and equipment, and case management.
In home care, it is expected that the family and/or friends will provide care to supplement the formal service provision. An estimated 26% of Canadians cared for a family member or close friend with a serious health problem in 2006.

Family caregivers provide 80% of care at home, supplementing the government-funded service.
The average family caregiver spends 20 hours/week caring for a period of 4 years; one quarter of caregivers spends 40 hours/week.
Service Provider Organizations can be contracted to deliver care to private individuals and through other privately ‐ insured employment plans and/or government programs. Home Care Ontario estimates that 150,000 Ontarians purchase an additional 20 million visits/hours of home care services annually in order to remain at home.

Differences in nurses’ work enjoyment, satisfaction with time for care and job security varies by agency but is not related to corporate structure.

“Home care is where we can get the best value for money and the highest quality of care for people.” Deb Matthews, Minister of Health & Long-Term Care in the Legislature, March 20, 2012.
There is no conclusive evidence to show that corporate structure determines cost effectiveness.
84% of Ontarians agree with the provincial government promoting home care as an alternative to health care in institutions such as hospitals and long-term care facilities.
A well-resourced home care system is imperative to address the aging population in Ontario, which will mean more people with chronic conditions and fewer health care providers.
55% of Ontarians are more likely to say that they will need to rely on a public system for home or health care in their retirement years.