Personal Support

When dealing with illness or frailty, even simple tasks can be challenging. For more than 40 years, Circle of Care has been helping people live healthier, happier, and longer lives in the comfort of their home, where most of them want to be. Our qualified nurses work with highly trained and dependable Personal Support Workers (PSWs) to provide compassionate care, including:

• Personal care such as grooming, bathing, dressing, and toileting
• Homemaking such as meal preparation, light cleaning and shopping
• Relief and respite for caregivers

There are certain tasks that are not in the scope of a PSW’s role when it comes to homemaking, such as heavy or detailed house cleaning, caring for a client’s pet or cleaning light fixtures – please read more about the scope of PSW duties below. Please do not ask your PSW to complete tasks that are not part of their scope of work. These rules are meant to ensure our staff’s safety so that they may continue to provide quality services.

Additional Care

We offer competitive rates for clients who would like to receive additional personal support above and beyond government funding.

Keeping our clients, their families, and our employees safe is of utmost importance to us. At every home visit, we are screening all clients for infection, in alignment with Public Health guidelines.

We require that our PSWs screen themselves for symptoms related to COVID-19 and the flu, and not attend work if they are symptomatic. Our PSWs are also required to wear a surgical mask for all home visits. If a client has active flu-like symptoms or has been diagnosed with COVID-19, PSWs will wear a surgical mask, gloves, isolation gown, and either a face shield or goggles to provide direct care.

To keep our clients and our PSWs safe, we recommend that clients wear a mask during their PSW visit for as long as it can be tolerated. We also recommend that family members wear a mask while in the same room as the PSW.

The service boundary for Personal Support services is north-south from Steeles Ave. to  Bloor St./Danforth Ave., and east-west from Hwy 427 to Port Union Rd.

At Circle of Care, we are deeply committed to the highest standards of practice and achieving excellence in all aspects of service. We are a proud member of the Home Care Ontario and the Ontario Community Support Association. We are accredited through Accreditation Canada and Hospice Palliative Care Ontario. Click here to read about Circle of Care’s outstanding results from our 2022 Accreditation survey.

One of the tasks that a PSW or Homemaker can do for a client is light housekeeping, such as dusting, wiping down counters, or sweeping the floor. Approved areas for cleaning include the client’s bedroom, the bathroom, kitchen, and living room. Light housekeeping can also include assistance with laundry (machine only) if client has a minimum of 2-hours for a visit.

PSWs and Homemakers are an unregulated profession. They are required to perform duties that are within their scopes of practice. A care plan will always include duties that within the scope of our Workers. There are certain duties that are PROHIBITED as they do not fall under the scope of practice and clients should not ask or insist that PSWs or Homemakers perform those tasks. The following are some examples of prohibited tasks which are not part of the services provided by Circle of Care and not approved for our PSWs and Homemakers to perform:

• Heavy/detailed cleaning, including scrubbing of any other surface, washing walls/doors/furniture etc.
• Lifting or moving furniture or any large or heavy object
• Caring for client’s pet(s), including cleaning or removing pet excrement or pet hair
• Ironing/steam pressing of laundry or linens
• Climbing, crawling, stretching, reaching beyond natural limits
• Clean mirrors (except for bathroom mirror with supervisor approval)
• Take down or hang drapes/curtains
• Clean light fixtures
• Clean the basement, garage, balcony or any areas outside of approved rooms
• Perform tasks outside the home, such as snow removal, mowing lawn
• Use wax on floors
• Carry large/heavy loads of laundry
• Empty ashtrays
• Use appliances with frayed cords
• Use gasoline, kerosene or benzene as cleaning fluids
• Handle paint or hazardous chemicals; Responsible for securing/storing paint and hazardous chemicals
• Use electrical space heaters or appliances in the bathroom, laundry room, near the kitchen sink or other areas that may be near water