Tapestry of care: who provides care in the home?

In order to understand the tapestry of care in the home, we need to realize that in addition to regulated staff providing care, home support workers, volunteers and family and friend caregivers provide essential support to the frail, disabled and chronically ill. In their article “Employers, Home Support Workers and Elderly Clients Reveal Key Issues in Delivery and Receipt of Home Support,” Anne Martin-Matthews and Joanie Sims-Gould touch on a number of key issues related to the delivery and receipt of home support services. This topic is especially important and timely given the significant role home supports play in the lives of Canadians, in particular those with ongoing care needs, such as seniors. Home supports also play a vital role in reducing pressures on other parts of the healthcare system. As the authors point out, home support workers address the majority of home care clients’ needs, providing between 70 and 80% of care. (For the purposes of this article, the term home support worker will be used to reflect a number of roles including personal support workers, community health workers, community healthcare aides, home helpers and homemakers.) However, it is important to note that this figure only takes into account the work covered by paid healthcare staff and does not reflect the unpaid care many Canadians require to stay healthy and independent in their homes.