Home care in its general sense means any type of care given to a person in their own home by someone other than family and friends. It is intended to supplement not replace the care provided by informal caregivers (typically spouse or partner, family and friends).

Home care aims to make it possible for people to remain at home rather than use residential, long-term, or institutional-based nursing care.

Home care providers provide services in the client's own home. The services may include some combination of professional health care services and life assistance services. ^[1] Home care may include personal care, homemaking services, nursing care and respite care. Home care is sometimes referred to in Canada as continuing care or community care.

The Canadian Association on Gerontology notes:

Home care is not currently available to Canadians on a universal basis; it falls outside of the realm of Medicare. Provinces vary in the services they offer, eligibility criteria, and the extent and whether user fees are charged.

 Health Canada notes:

Home care services are not publicly insured through the Canada Health Act in the same way as hospital and physician services. In Canada, most home and community care services are delivered by provincial, territorial and some municipal governments. The federal government provides funding support through transfer payments for health and social services. The federal government also delivers home care services to First Nations on-reserve and Inuit in designated communities, members of the armed forces and the RCMP, federal inmates, and eligible veterans. Health Canada is engaged in research and policy analysis on home and community care across Canada. ^[2]

 

Increasingly, much of the home care available to older adults in many jurisdictions of Canada is private pay.

Resources:

ONTARIO

Description:

Home Care Complaints and  Appeals 2005. Written by Advocacy Centre for the Elderly  and ARCH. Published by CLEO. 25 pages

Description:  This booklet is for people in Ontario who apply for or get home care services through a Community Care Access Centre (CCAC). It explains how to make a complaint about services, and how to appeal if the complaint does not result in a satisfactory decision.

General

From Health  Canada

British Columbia

Centre for Policy Alternatives. (June 2006)  From  Support to Isolation- The High Cost of BC's Declining Home Support Services.

 Footnote  [1]  Wikipedia "Home care"

Footnote  [2]  Health Canada "Home and Community Care"