In Canada, home and community healthcare is an integral part of the country’s publicly funded healthcare system, with private options available for those who have the means.
Rather than keep people in hospitals or long-term care facilities, home healthcare supports people who need medical care, assistance with daily activities, or rehabilitation services in the comfort of their own homes or within their communities.
How Home Healthcare Works
Public home and community healthcare services are primarily funded through Medicare and are managed by each province or territory. This means that services will vary somewhat depending on where you live, as each province or territory develops its own policies, delivery methods, and eligibility criteria.
Many basic home care services may be covered by public health insurance. However, certain services, such as housekeeping, cooking or more extensive nursing care, require out-of-pocket payments or additional private insurance.
Home healthcare covers a wide range of services, typically falling under the following categories:
Home Healthcare Services
- Personal Care and Support: Includes help with daily activities such as bathing, dressing, grooming, meal preparation, and mobility support.
- Medical and Nursing Care: This involves healthcare professionals providing services such as wound care, medication management, chronic disease monitoring, and post-hospitalization care. Registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and sometimes physicians visit the home to provide medical attention.
- Rehabilitation Services: Physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy can be provided in the home to assist individuals recovering from injuries or surgeries or managing chronic conditions.
- Respite Care: Temporary care provided to relieve family caregivers who may need a break from the responsibility of looking after a loved one.
- Palliative Care: Specialized care for individuals facing terminal illnesses, often with the goal of improving quality of life and managing symptoms at home.
- Specialized Services: These can include mental health support, case management for complex health needs, and assistance with medical equipment (e.g., oxygen, wheelchairs).
If you or a loved one are in need of home healthcare services, connect with your local health authority listed below.
Provincial and Territorial Public Home Healthcare Organizations
Most provinces have policies whereby home services are provided by private companies. The first step is to do an assessment with your local healthcare authority to see how much will be covered with public funds. Once you know what services you are eligible to receive, you can then work out a budget that is needed for any missing services that you can engage privately.
Start with your the public healthcare organization in your province or territory to start your home healthcare process.
- Alberta:
Alberta Health Services (AHS) – Home care services are provided through AHS, which offers a wide range of health and personal support services to help people remain in their homes. - British Columbia:
BC Home and Community Care – Managed by the regional health authorities (Fraser Health, Interior Health, Island Health, Northern Health, and Vancouver Coastal Health), home care services are offered under the umbrella of these regional organizations. Care BC offers services such as Respite and Meals on Wheels. - Manitoba:
Manitoba Home Care Program – The Manitoba government administers home care through the provincial health system. Services are delivered by regional health authorities (RHAs) such as Winnipeg RHA and others. - New Brunswick:
Extra-Mural Program (EMP) – Often referred to as “the hospital without walls,” this program is managed by Medavie Health Services and provides home care across the province. - Newfoundland and Labrador:
Health Home and Community Services – Each regional health authority (Eastern, Central, Western, Labrador-Grenfell) in Newfoundland and Labrador offers home and community care services. - Nova Scotia:
Nova Scotia Health Authority – Continuing Care – Home care services in Nova Scotia are provided by the Nova Scotia Health Authority and are overseen by the Department of Health and Wellness. - Ontario:
Home and Community Care Support Services (HCCSS) – Previously known as Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs), these organizations coordinate home care services across Ontario. - Prince Edward Island:
Health PEI Home Care Services – Health PEI delivers home care services across the province. - Quebec:
Integrated Health and Social Services Centres (CISSS) and Integrated University Health and Social Services Centres (CIUSSS) – These organizations manage home care services in Quebec under the provincial health system. - Saskatchewan:
Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) Home Care Services – The SHA provides home care services in urban and rural areas across the province. - Yukon:
Yukon Home Care Program – Managed by the Government of Yukon, the program offers a range of health and support services to help Yukoners live independently. - Northwest Territories:
Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority (NTHSSA) – Home care services are offered through the regional offices of the NTHSSA. - Nunavut:
Nunavut Department of Health – Home and Community Care Program – This program provides home care services to support residents in remaining at home.
Private Home Health Care Companies
Private home healthcare organizations exist in each province and territory across Canada. These organizations provide a range of services such as nursing care, personal support, and rehabilitation.
Some care provided by accredited homecare service providers may be covered by your provincial medicare, depending on your assessment. If you or a loved one requires more care than what is covered by your provincial or territorial healthcare authority, private insurance providers may cover extra charges.
Many provinces do not require home and community care providers to be licensed, so it’s important that you do your due diligence before deciding which provider to go with. Home healthcare companies can get accredited by Accreditation Canada but are not required to. You may prefer to go with an accredited provider as they are required to maintain their criteria to keep their accreditation.
In addition to checking if they are accredited, make sure you check out online reviews of the care provider on all review platforms to make sure you get a well-rounded view of the company.
Numerous private home healthcare organizations operate nationally across multiple provinces and territories. These include:
- Bayshore Home Health is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life, dignity and independence of all Canadians, by providing customized care plans and solutions that allow clients to remain in the comfort of their own home.
- Comfort Keepers provides in-home care for seniors and other adults by empowering them to maintain their independence and realize joy in the everyday moments. Their uplifting care services focus on physical, mental and social wellbeing to help seniors live the highest quality of life in the sanctuary of home.
- Home Instead Senior Care provides safe and consistent care for your loved one as they age, delivered at home with both comfort and transparency.
- Just Like Family Home Care is a Certified Social Enterprise. The majority of their profits are reinvested into their social mission: providing care, community connection, education, and advocacy, we strive to support and enhance the quality of life for everyone they touch.
- Nurse Next Door matches you or your loved one with the perfect caregiver, with care tailored to fit individual needs.
- Paramed Home Healthcare Services offers customized in-home care services. ParaMed brings the comfort and support you need at home with the right customized plan to preserve your loved ones.
- Right at Home is a small custom Care Team lead by a Care Planner supporting patients in all aspects of care at home.
- Shannex works together with their clients to create a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere where you feel at home. They help you keep the relationships you have and create opportunities for you to build new ones.
- Qualicare Home Care is your family’s partner for home care that meets your unique needs and preferences.
Why not try a new way to find a caregiver – check out online hiring platforms such as Bark or Care.com. You enter your location and your needs, and they will give you quotes from highly rated home healthcare providers near you, along with contact information.
Additionally, many companies operate locally only in your province. Find your province or territory below to navigate to the information.
Alberta:
Click to see a list of private home healthcare providers in Alberta.
See here for a full list of home healthcare providers in Alberta.
Compassionate Network provides home care services, including nursing, caregiving, companionship and more.
CBI Home Health support Canadians and their families with flexible healthcare programs that deliver meaningful results.
Qualicare Home Care delivers specialized home care such as managing everyday tasks, or simply keeping your loved one company. They’ll work with you to develop a custom home care plan that compassionately responds to your loved one’s needs, for as long as you need them.
The Key in-home care offers part-time assistance or around-the-clock care, through their committed team of experts who are ready to manage the intricacies of daily activities.
Foothills Home Services offers a range of home care services through their dedicated team committed to providing high-quality home care services.
Truly home care services is a dedicated service provider whose goal is to provide superb home health care services to seniors and people with needs in the comfort of their homes.
British Columbia:
Click to see a list of private home healthcare providers in B.C.
Living Well Home Care Services provides a wide range of home care services. Their services are provided short-term or long-term and they offer a one hour minimum.
Evergreen Nursing – home care for seniors, surgery recovery & palliative care.
Interior Health – help with acute, chronic, palliative or rehabilitative home health-care needs.
Vancouver Home Health Care helps seniors and people living with brain injuries and disabilities be as independent as possible.
All Nursing Health Services specializes in elderly care. Their comprehensive range of services includes private skilled nursing care, personal care, companion care, homemaking, live-in caregiver services, respite care, palliative care, dementia care, Alzheimer’s care, IV care, foot care, wound care, post-surgery care, nannies, physiotherapy, and rehabilitation services
Peachtacular Home Health Care offers client-centred, community-based home health care in Vancouver, BC, and its neighbouring areas.
Manitoba:
Click to see a list of private home healthcare providers in Manitoba.
See here for the Long Term & Continuing Care Association of Manitoba (LTCAM)’s list of member care providers. The LTCAM is a non-profit organization committed to enhancing the quality of care for long term and continuing care residents and clients.
Silver Lining Care provides care services for people of all ages who have an ongoing condition, short term recovery or mobility limitations.
Comforts of Home – Care offers a personalized approach to foster respectful, compassionate, and culturally appropriate services that are responsive to the needs, values, beliefs and preferences of their clients and their families.
Compassionate Care home healthcare support is a premier provider of customized senior home care services, dedicated to ensuring that you or your loved one can remain safely and comfortably at home without the need for relocation to a care facility. Their services range from companionship and social support to 24/7 live-in nursing care and span virtually everything in between.
Drake Medox Home Care offers a range of in-home care services for individuals of all ages in Winnipeg, short-term and long-term.
Partners for Homecare offer private and personalized home care assistance for seniors in Winnipeg, tailored to your needs.
Home Instead offers Iin-n home care services, helping seniors age safely at home. Trained caregivers provide loving, personalized care.
New Brunswick:
Click on the arrow to see a list of private home healthcare providers in New Brunswick.
See here for a full list of private home care agencies in your area.
Integrity Home Health Services assist clients in their own home providing personal care, light housekeeping, and meal preparation as outlined by the client care plan.
Kindred Home Care provides long term care and home health services to adults and seniors in New Brunswick.
Senior Watch provides compassionate, personalized in-home and in-hospital Senior Care, 24/7 in the Saint John area.
Homecare by Design is a social enterprise start-up company with a passion to help seniors age in place.
Triple C Comfort Keepers is a local, family owned, Home Health Care Business offering 24 hr support to those in the Fredericton, Oromocto, and surrounding areas.
KRT Home Healthcare provides in-home health care to accommodate a variety of needs which include: meal preparation, light housekeeping, as well as temporary and long term care. Palliative care and companionship are also available.
Newfoundland and Labrador:
Click to see a list of private home healthcare providers in Newfoundland and Labrador.
See here for a list of licensed homecare providers in Newfoundland.
Maximum Home Support is a tailored service where qualified, registered caregivers and nurses come to your loved one’s home and provide the care they need in the comfort of their own home.
Comfort Home Care offers a full range of specialized home care services. They are available 7 days a week and can be tailored to meet your individual needs.
Compassion Home Care’s mission is to provide their clients and families with top-quality care, enabling them to reside safely and independently at home.
Provincial Homecare is accredited, government licensed, and regulated. They believe that the most favourable place to receive health care is in the comfort of your own home, and the best way to receive it is from people who treat you like family.
Helping Hands Homecare offers a wide range of personalized care solutions that include general housekeeping, cooking, medication reminders, running chores and errands.
TLC Nursing and Homecare is an accredited homecare agency offering professional in-home nursing care, household management support and workplace health care services.
Caregivers NL is fully accredited, and offers home care, respite services, in-home nursing, and palliative care to Newfoundland families.
Nova Scotia:
Click to see a list of private home healthcare providers in Nova Scotia
See here for a full list of home healthcare providers in Nova Scotia.
Victorian Order of Nurses is a nonprofit, community-health organization that provides nursing care in the home.
Always Home Home Care offers private home care in Nova Scotia servicing Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford, Sackville, and other areas of Nova Scotia.
Careforce Home healthcare empowers people to live comfortably and safely through their team of compassionate and skillful caregivers who provide physical, social, emotional, and spiritual support to both clients and their families.
Osprey Angels Homecare Services offers assistance with a range of services, such as palliative care, specially-abled care, and personal care. We also specialize in providing high-quality care in areas like dementia care, Alzheimer, and mobility changes,
Remember When Homecare offers private and affordable homecare services for seniors in halifax and surrounding areas.
Senior Homecare by Angels offers personal care, companion care, respite care, dementia care, and more.
Parkwood Homecare offers hourly, daily, dementia, respite, and veterans care services designed to deliver customized in-home care services for your loved one.
Ontario:
Click to see a list of private home healthcare providers in Ontario.
When making your selection, check out Homecare Ontario, a member-based organization that advocates for the creation of a strong, reliable and accessible home care system supporting all Ontarians.
Victorian Order of Nurses is a nonprofit, community-health organization that provides nursing care in the home.
SE Health (Saint Elizabeth Health Care) offers various services, including home care, palliative care, rehabilitation, and mental health services.
CarePartners offers personal support workers, rehabilitation services and nursing care for patients in homes, schools, retirement homes, clinics, and workplaces.
CBI Home Health offers compassionate, expert care in the place that matters most – your home. They support Canadians and their families with flexible healthcare programs that deliver meaningful results.
Home Instead Senior Care offers Iin-n home care services, helping seniors age safely at home. Trained caregivers provide loving, personalized care.
VHA Homecare is a not-for-profit charitable organization that offers 24/7 health care and support services to people of all ages.
Prince Edward Island:
Click to see a list of private home healthcare providers in PEI.
211 PEI provides in-home services for people who require short or long term support to remain in their homes safely.
Chloe’s Private Home Care is dedicated to providing high-quality, compassionate care services to residents of Prince Edward Island.
Support Solutions Homecare empowers independent seniors, with unique health care needs, to live well at home through advocacy and compassionate nursing!
Your Home Homecare aims to keep all their clients happy and healthy while providing them with the best possible care.
Quebec:
Click to see a list of private home healthcare providers in Quebec.
A Plus Homecare provides customized services with a strong sense of compassion and aim to achieve nothing but the best to meet the needs of children, adults, seniors, employees and others in our communities.
Bien Chez Soi offers home care such as assistance with various household tasks, meal preparation, housekeeping as well as personalised health care.
Equinoxe provides professional and personal in-home support for the specific medical, physical, emotional and social needs of older adults.
Golden Home Care provides personalized In-Home Support and Personal Care Services to seniors and other family members.
The Key provides help with a wide variety of non-medical related activities of daily living. These include: showering, bathing and dressing, meal preparation, transportation, using the toilet, companionship, recreation, medication reminders, fall prevention and more.
Homecare Solutions Montreal understands that the care of seniors requires the very best of communication and this always starts with having a real and trained person answering the phone.
Sante Monteregie Portal. The CISSS provides services to help people with a loss of autonomy stay at home for as long as possible.
Soins de Sante Confort Elite offers residents of Quebec nursing care and personal care and support.
Soins Amika offers affordable home care services including meal prep, hygiene care, cleaning, respite & companionship 24/7.
Services de Sante Marleen Tasse offers private home care services to people who are recovering, seniors and their families, as well as people at the end of life in Gatineau.
Saskatchewan:
Click to see a list of private home healthcare providers in Saskatchewan.
Beyond Care Home Health Support offers personalized in-home care services.
CBI Home Health supports Canadians and their families with flexible healthcare programs that deliver meaningful results.
Helping Hands is a leading provider of personal care homes and homecare services in Regina and rural Saskatchewan for seniors and people with disabilities.
Neighbourhood Homecare Services has an extensive team dedicated to providing a wide variety of services for you and your loved ones convenience.
Territories:
Click to understand private home healthcare options in the Territories.
Yukon
There are fewer private options in the Yukon compared to southern provinces. Local organizations or independent caregivers may be available. Bayshore Home Health may offer services remotely.
Northwest Territories
CBI Health Group provides some home healthcare services in the region.
Local private organizations are limited, and care is often provided by smaller, community-based services.
Nunavut
Nunavut has very limited private home healthcare providers. Most home care services are provided through government-run or community-based initiatives. Some larger organizations like Bayshore Home Health may operate on a case-by-case basis in northern areas.
Cost of Home Care
The cost of private home healthcare in Canada varies widely depending on several factors, such as the type of care, location, level of care required, and duration of service. Here’s a general breakdown:
Hourly Rates and what to expect:
- Personal Support Worker (PSW): $20 to $40 per hour
- Services generally offered include companionship, light housekeeping, grocery shopping, medication assistance, toileting, meal prep, bathing and grooming, help with devices and more
- Nurse: $30 to $80 per hour
- Depending on your needs, either a Registered nurse or a Licensed Practical Nurse can assist with medical needs such as device care, wound care, IV therapy and injections, pain and symptom management, wellness checks and more.
Live-in Care:
- For live-in caregivers, prices can range from $3,000 to $6,000 per month depending on the caregiver’s qualifications, duties, and whether room and board are provided.
Specialized Services:
- Physiotherapy, occupational therapy, or speech therapy: $80 to $150 per session.
- Palliative care or specialized nursing (e.g., for complex medical needs) typically costs more due to the higher level of expertise required.
24-Hour Care:
- Costs for 24-hour care typically range between $15,000 to $25,000 per month, depending on the level of care needed and the type of healthcare provider involved.
Geographic Variations:
- Costs can also vary significantly between provinces and cities. Larger urban centers such as Toronto or Vancouver tend to have higher rates compared to smaller cities or rural areas.
Additional Costs:
- Transportation fees for caregivers or additional services like meal preparation, housekeeping, or medical equipment might increase the overall cost.
Private health insurance in Canada may cover some home health care costs, but coverage varies depending on the insurance provider and the specific plan. Many plans have limits on how much they will pay for home care or require a physician’s referral to approve services. It’s important to review specific policies to understand what is covered and if there are caps on benefits.
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