Your aging parents live in Manitoba and don’t want home care. What can you do?
Your parents are getting older, and they’re starting to run into health issues. You’re trying to support them as best as you can. The challenge is that you have a family of your own to look after, not to mention work responsibilities. You’re feeling stretched. And if you’re being honest with yourself, you don’t anticipate things getting any easier.
Perhaps one of your parents recently had a health scare and went to the hospital. When they were discharged, they still weren’t themselves. You had to step in to make sure everything was ready for their return home. It was all a bit of a scramble, but you got through it.
The trouble is that you had to take time off work to get it done. Your boss was understanding this time, but you’re not sure she’ll feel the same way if this sort of thing happens again.
Not only that, you feel guilty about being an absentee parent when this was going on, leaving it to your busy spouse to look after the kids. You hope this doesn’t become a regular thing, but there’s no way you can know.
Broadening Your Circle of Support
As much as you love your parents, you know you can’t continue to be their only source of support. And so, you begin to explore options.
You discover that, because they live in Manitoba, they can receive publicly-funded home care through their regional health authority.
This includes services like:
Personal Care: Assistance with daily living activities like bathing, dressing, and mobility.
Home Support: Help with tasks like meal preparation, light housekeeping, and laundry.
Health Care: Nursing care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and other specialized services like home dialysis or IV therapy.
This sounds good to you. Since your parents live in Winnipeg, you call the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority Home Care Intake Line (204-788-8330) and arrange an assessment.
That’s when things take an unexpected turn. Although the assessment reveals that your parent who needs support is eligible for home care, they are clearly not keen on the idea.
To begin with, the thought of having strangers in their home makes them anxious. They’re even more skeptical when they hear that they may not have much choice in when they come. You can also tell there are some more complex emotions around this that are going unsaid. Your parents insist they can make do without home care, and they make it clear you shouldn’t bring it up again.
Your heart sinks. It’s clear to you that your parents need more help than they’re willing to admit. Even more disappointing, they don’t seem to fully recognize just how much support you’re already giving them – and the toll it’s taking on you.
Rather than get into an argument with them, you start looking for other types of help that might be more acceptable to them.
Taking Action
During your research, you learn that another option is to manage your own publicly-funded home care services. It appeals to you because it can help you (or your parents) make sure the same home care worker visits on a consistent basis. In other words, there’s a better chance your parents will get to know and trust this person – and no longer view them as a stranger in their home.
Although this self and family managed care option sounds promising, you realize it would mean taking on administrative responsibilities that sound like they could be daunting, including:
recruiting and vetting the person who supports your parents
scheduling
tracking hours
making payments
issuing receipts
keeping financial records
You’re reluctant to take on the administrative hassles. After all, you’re stretched thin enough as it is. And you’re pretty certain this isn’t something your parents want to take on themselves.
Could Care Possible Help?
That’s when you come across Care Possible, a service by Manitoba Possible (formerly Society for Manitobans with Disabilities) that could help you simplify managing your parent’s home care services. It would allow you to directly hire a self-employed worker to provide personal care or home support for them.
You open the website. It asks you to complete the following steps:
Create an account and then a listing that describes your parent’s care requirements.
Search for care providers by neighbourhood while reviewing their qualifications and ratings.
Use the secure in-app messaging feature to contact the providers who seem like a good fit for your parent. Later, rate your experience with them.
Use Care Possible’s scheduling tool to book care within your parents’ schedule.
Use the online record-keeping to simplify paperwork. Track hours, payments, and receipts. Quickly and securely transfer money.
You also note that all care providers listed on the Care Possible platform go through strict security checks, and that’s a real relief to you.
You pitch this option to your parents, emphasizing that it gives them greater choice and control over who visits them. They’re reluctant at first, but because you can browse provider profiles together, they are curious to give it a try.
Meeting the right care provider for you
You’re careful to involve them in the process of selecting their home care worker, getting them comfortable with the website in the process. They pick a couple of workers who look like a good fit and have excellent ratings. You help set up a few interviews so you can all get to know each other better. The Care Possible customer experience team reaches out and makes a few suggestions, too.
Your parents are pleasantly surprised. They like that they were able to choose their own worker and have struck up a friendship with them. They also like that they can schedule services when they want, as opposed to when a third-party scheduler can fit them in.
For your part, you’re just happy your parents are getting the support they need. You’re not as preoccupied at work or at home. In fact, you feel like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders. Your parents’ well-being is still a concern, but you feel in a much better place to support them.
About Care Possible
Care Possible is a non-profit social enterprise by Manitoba Possible, dedicated to providing affordable, flexible, and preference-based in-home and respite care services. We support seniors, individuals with disabilities, and families using self and family-managed care in Winnipeg. Our mission is to ensure that every Manitoban who accesses care has an excellent experience.