It may seem like a simple question, but it’s a complicated answer. Basically, home care is the care provided to a client in their home, which may be at their house, apartment, a retirement home or anywhere someone calls “home”.
Caring for someone in their home comes with benefits and challenges. Some of the benefits are that you are treating people where they are most comfortable and you can get a true sense of their living environment and lifestyle.
Working in home care does require the ability to adapt to changing environments, both in the home and the community. This can range from weather and traffic to clutter and caregivers. With the support of your fellow Allied Health team members you will learn how to manage some of these hurdles.
Carefor offers Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Social Work and Dietetics careers in Ottawa to meet your lifestyle and career goals. Learn more about our Rehabilitation Services.
More clients
Less time with each client
Set work schedule
One location
Can’t see home environment
Paid per client
No paid vacation
No pension plan
Fewer clients
More time to focus on the whole client
More flexible work schedule
Varied locations
Can suit treatment to home
Set salary
Paid vacation
HOOPP Pension Plan
The path we take for our career rarely follows a straight line. Along the journey we make decisions to help us find not only the type of work we want to do, but also the kind of life we want to have.
When Meghann Gallop graduated from university in 2008 as an occupational therapist, her first job was at Carefor. After three years of working in the community she left to explore other opportunities and found a job working for an insurance agency assessing worker claims. This was decidedly not the fulfilling job she was looking for. Meghann struggled with the opposing goals between her agency and her clients, as she was there to assess their claims and not to improve people’s health.
Another problem for Meghann was the effect that the work was having on her wellbeing. In this role, she felt seriously overworked. She describes long hours, working regularly after she put her children to bed to 11:00 PM to complete her reports. Along with this poor work-life balance, Meghann recalls, “The pay was terrible, benefits were terrible and there was no pension.” Eventually, she decided that her calling was somewhere else.
Meghann brought these concerns to Kaelan Bray, Carefor Allied Health Manager at the time. Hearing Meghann’s struggles, she recommended that Meghann send in her resume. By 2013, Meghann was back on the Carefor team, working full-time as an occupational therapist. This time around, Meghann was here to stay.
“I’m probably a Carefor lifer,” she laughs. “I don’t know why I would leave. I like the job; it gives me a good work-life balance,” says Meghann. A key aspect of the job for her are the connections she forges and the comfort that she can bring people. In some environments, like hospital inpatient care, Meghann says it can be harder to support clients. When they’re so divorced from their normal life, it’s difficult as an OT to assess their realities and offer them suggestions to manage or overcome them. “[In hospital, everyone] is in in the same bed, wearing the same hospital gown.”
But working with clients in their homes gives you the chance to talk to them in their own space. You can ask questions about their home, see how they manage their daily life, and offer solutions in real-time as you observe the barriers they face. You connect with people on a personal level. “Homecare is the heart of occupational therapy,” she says. “Being in people’s homes allows you to see them in their natural environment.”
Additionally, she finds satisfaction with her scope of practice. She sees five clients a day and they can be five different people with very different needs. “I never get bored. I see a lot of variety,” she says.
Now, with a job that she’s passionate about and a pension plan that supports her future, Meghann has found a place she feels she belongs. “I work alone in the community, but I have a team that I connect with. We message each other throughout the day and go for lunch together once a month.” Carefor has offered her the chance to make personal connections in work and maintain her life out of it. For Meghann, there’s no looking back.
If you’re interested in joining the Carefor team, go to the Careers page on the Carefor website to learn more.
"*" indicates required fields