Supporting Caregivers in Home and Community Care

There are four million caregivers in Ontario—people caring for caring for family members, partners, friends, and neighbours.

Many caregivers support people at home and in their community. They play a critical role in ensuring the person’s safety, health, and well-being – and their ability to remain living in their home.

Caregivers at Risk

Many caregivers experience stress, burnout and find it difficult to continue in their caregiving role. Caregivers are also at greater risk of feelings of isolation, depression, and long-term health conditions. This poses a risk to the health and well-being of the caregivers themselves, and of the person they support.

Adding to the issue is the fact that many caregivers face barriers to support or are unaware that help is available.

Caregiver burnout can result in:

Increased client hospital usage and need for in-home services
Negative impact on client health outcomes
Earlier long-term care placement

Caregivers need support in order to successfully care for others. Home and community care professionals can play a key role in identifying caregivers and connecting them to the support they need.

Interventions Focused on Caregiver Well-being Can Help

These include:

Peer support
Respite
Psychoeducational and
psychosocial support
Education
Skills training
Counselling

Other Ways Home and Community Care Service Providers Can Support Caregivers:

Asking caregivers how they are doing
Assessing caregiver needs and their capacity to provide care
Involving caregivers in care and service plans
Connecting caregivers to local support and the OCO
Referring caregivers to the Ontario Caregiver Helpline
Providing caregivers with a copy of OCO’s I Am A Caregiver Toolkit
Directing caregivers to ontariocaregiver.ca.

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Related Resources

Find useful resources on this topic.

Resource Library

I am a Caregiver Toolkit

3 min
(4 MB)

Download

Emergency Planning Toolkit for Caregivers

Form
(374 KB)

Download

Contingency Planning Toolkit for Caregivers

Worksheet
(347 KB)

Download

Free Caregiver Programs and Services for Caregivers

5 min
(197 KB)

Download

We’re Available to Meet

If you are a healthcare organization interested in learning more about how we work with care settings to support and include caregivers, contact us to schedule a 30-minute introductory session.

Try these pages next

Caregivers and Ontario Health Teams

Find resources and educational material to help integrate care partners into your care setting

Ontario Caregiver Helpline

Organizations and service providers can refer caregivers to the Ontario Caregiver Helpline, a 24/7 service for caregiver information and referral.

Am I a Caregiver?

Supports for Caregivers

Tools for Caregivers