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Just like in any position, we seek certain qualities that distinguish a professional PSW or Homemaker. We take pride in hiring top talent, focusing on specific criteria that define an exceptional PSW or HSW. Here are some key behaviours, attitudes, and skills we look for:

While working, the PSW must comply with the following:

• Wear safe, closed-toe, flat, and non-slip shoes when working in clients’ homes.
• Keep long hair tied back or up while working. Hair must be clean, combed, and neatly trimmed or arranged.
• Maintain good personal hygiene.
• Keep your fingernails short and clean.
• Wear a Circle of Care scrub top that is clean, neat, and in good repair. Scrub bottoms are also recommended. Please maintain professional dressing at all times. Short jeans or denim are not advised.
• Remain scent-free while in a client’s home.
• Excessive jewelry and watches may present safety hazards and are discouraged while assisting with client care. Exercise good judgment when choosing which accessories to wear.

Personal Care

Personal care encompasses all activities related to personal hygiene, cleanliness, and grooming. These tasks include bathing, oral care, skin care, nutrition, assistance with feeding, dressing, toileting, walking, transferring, positioning, and movement.

It is crucial to perform these tasks with the utmost sensitivity to the client’s comfort, dignity, and preferences, as they directly impact the client’s self-perception. Clients should be encouraged to participate in their self-care to the extent possible to promote independence and boost self-esteem.

During personal care routines, you have the opportunity to observe any unusual physical or emotional changes in the client, which should be promptly reported to your Client Service Supervisor. It is important to always maintain the client’s privacy and safety.

NOTE: Always follow universal precautionary measures.

Activities of Daily Living (ADLs):

The term used in healthcare refers to people’s daily self-care activities. Some examples of ADLs include:

• Bathing or personal hygiene
• Toileting
• Dressing and grooming
• Feeding
• Transferring

Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (iADLs):

The term used in healthcare refers to key life tasks that are not related to self-care but represent other types of routine daily activities. Some examples of iADLs are:

• Light housekeeping
• Maintaining a safe physical environment
• Grocery shopping
• Escorting to medical or social appointments
• Meal preparation or light cooking

Bathing Tasks

• Assist with a bed bath or sponge bath (this may include perineal hygiene).
• Remember to always turn cold water on first and turn it off last when filling the tub.
• Check the water temperature before helping the client in. The bathtub or shower should have a non-skid mat.

NOTE: If a client falls while bathing or with other tasks, and is unable to get up with limited support, provide measures to keep the client warm and call 911. Report the incident to the Call Center as soon as possible and wait for instructions.

Mouth Care Tasks

• Assist with mouth care – help clean teeth or dentures.

Grooming Tasks

• Wash and brush hair.
• Assist with dressing.

Skin Care Tasks

• Shave the client with an electric razor only.
• Apply non-prescription lotion to dry skin.

Toileting Tasks

• Assist the client when using the bedpan, commode, or toilet.
• Empty and clean the commode, urinal, or bedpan.
• Report observations of changes in normal bowel or bladder habits.

Assist the client with changing incontinence products.

Ambulation/Transfers/Positioning and Moving

• Assist in the transfer of clients from the bed to wheelchair and the wheelchair to sofa (if the client is able to partially bear weight).
• Move, reposition, and turn bedridden clients.
• Encourage exercise – e.g. walking, range of motion exercises (be aware of specific client delegations).

Nutrition-Related Tasks

• Feed the client promptly and direct clients to purchase or prepare and eat appropriate meals on a regular basis.
• Assist the client if vomiting has occurred.

Miscellaneous Tasks

• Accompany the client on community outings or to medical appointments (if authorized by a supervisor).
• Check that the temperature on electric blankets or heating pads is kept at a low setting.
• Remind the client to take their oral medication, injection, inhalant, eye drops, or skin ointments. Do not administer medications.
• Be aware of safety hazards with oxygen usage in the home and report any safety concerns or equipment malfunctions to your Client Service.
  

Providing the client with a safe, clean, and pleasant environment is another part of your job. Many clients need help to maintain their homes. You may be expected to perform light housekeeping, laundry, cooking, and shopping for some clients, in addition to personal care. It is important to remember that assistance with these activities is often a critical factor in enabling clients to remain in their own homes instead of seeking institutional care.NOTE: The exact amount, extent, and frequency of these duties will vary from client to client.

Housekeeping Duties and Responsibilities

NOTE: Always wear cleaning gloves. Many cleaning products contain strong chemicals. Rubber cleaning gloves will protect your hands. Also, keep doors and windows open if possible and if client approves. Always follow the directions on cleaning container labels and never mix different products together.

Kitchen

• Wash, dry and put away dishes
• Clean countertops, tabletops and chairs
• Clean the outside of the oven, stove, and fridge
• Clean the inside of the fridge when necessary
• Check the fridge for spoiled or out-of-date food and dispose of this food with the client’s permission
• Clean the inside of the oven when necessary
• Clean sink, taps, and behind taps
• Wash cupboard doors
• Wipe appliances on the counter
• Sweep the floor and then mop the floor with a wet mop
• Wrap and dispose of garbage
• Wipe up spills immediately
• Turn pot handles inwards when on the stove
• Unplug the toaster before cleaning. Never stick a fork in the toaster when it is plugged in

Bathroom

• Clean the tub and sink
• Clean taps and the shower head
• Clean the toilet, including the base and behind
• Clean mirrors
• Wash the floor
• Empty the garbage
• Make sure the bath tub or shower has a non-skid mat. If not, report to supervisor
• Wipe up spills

Bedroom

• Change linens and make the bed
• Dust furniture and tidy the room (when dusting, do not remove the items from the furniture)
• Vacuum
• Clean mirrors
• Make the (bedridden) client’s occupied bed

Living Room/ Dining Room/ Hallways

• Dust thoroughly
• Vacuum floors and carpets thoroughly
• Pick up clutter that can be tripped over
• Move electrical cords out of the way so that people do not trip over them
• Make sure scatter rugs have a rubber backing or are tacked down. Until this is done, ask for permission to move them temporarily to a corner of the room
• Make sure that there is adequate lighting in hallways, stairwells, and other high traffic areas. If not, this must be reported to the Client Service Supervisor. Do not attempt to fix the issue or change light bulbs
• Keep space heaters away from clothing, drapes, and walkways

Laundry

• Wash only the client’s clothes and linens in the washing machine
• Light ironing (not for large items such as sheets or linens)
• Fold and put away laundry for the client, if requested

Visit verification is a job expectation and is required by our funders.

• All PSWs and Homemakers are required to verify in and out for every client visit.
• Only verify in to a visit once you are with the client, not before. Seeing the client ensures they are safe and it allows you to perform the ALC checklist.
• It is your responsibility to ensure your Circle of Care mobile phone is always charged and working.

Cluster Sites and Visits

• If you work at a Cluster Site, please verify in and out for every visit.
• If the visit is less than 1 hour long (e.g. 15-minute visit), you will have a 1-hour window to provide service according to the time the visit is scheduled, in order to be fully paid for that visit.

You must verify every visit using the following methods and in the following order:

• Use your mobile phone to verify in and out.
• If your mobile phone is not working for that client visit, verify in and out using the client’s home phone and Telephony.
  1. When you arrive at the client’s home, you will use the client’s home phone (landline only) to verify that you have arrived at the client’s home.
  2. At the start of the visit, use Telephony to verify in: Call 647-478-8424 from the client’s home phone. Press 7 and follow the instructions.
  3. At the end of the visit, use Telephony to verify out: Call 647-478-8424 from the client’s home phone. Press 7 and follow the instructions.
• If Telephony is not working for that client visit, call the office and speak with a live agent.

NOTE: All PSWs and Homemakers are expected to use their Circle of Care mobile phone as their main method of visit verification at all times. Only if there is an issue with the mobile phone is a PSW or Homemaker able to use the client’s phone for verification purposes. If the PSW or Homemaker is unable to verify in or out of the client’s home due to uncontrollable circumstances such as the client’s phone being out of service; the client has a cell phone only; or a family member is on the phone; then the PSW should call Circle of Care 416-635-2860 and provide your reason and request verification. Failure to comply with visit verification will result in follow-up measures with your Client Service Supervisor.

Supplies are ordered through the PSW Mobile App. For more information, visit our page on how to order supplies.

Circle of Care is committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace that promotes a high level of professionalism, diversity, and a respectful work environment. We believe that it is the shared responsibility of all employees and volunteers to work towards the constant improvement of our workplace. To assist the organization in maintaining an exemplary work environment, we require that employees and volunteers always conduct themselves in an ethical and professional manner.

Unacceptable behaviours are classified under these groups:

• Hazardous to employee safety
• Criminal
• A negative influence on workplace morale
• Detrimental to the success of our business

Employees and volunteers are expected to perform their job duties in a manner conducive to a safe workplace, following all practices, policies, and procedures.

Unacceptable actions and behaviours include:

• Causing physical harm to another person
• Threats or harassing behaviour
• Willful damage or destruction to employer or employee property
• Possession of a weapon while on employer premises, or while conducting business on behalf of the employer
• Disorderly, immoral, or indecent conduct
• Violation of health and safety practices, policies, and procedures
• Dishonest, illegal, or improper business activities
• Job abandonment
• The use, possession, sale, manufacture, or dispensation of any illegal drug, alcohol, or paraphernalia associated with either
• The use of alcohol or illicit narcotics off employer premises that adversely affects the employee’s work performance, the employee’s own safety or the safety of others at work, or the employer’s reputation in the community
• Theft, including physical, and intellectual properties
• Insubordination
• Failure to report to management the use of any prescribed drug, which may alter the employee’s ability to safely perform their duties
• Arriving to work late without providing advanced notice and/or without reasonable cause
• Failure to properly report an absence
• Failure to adhere to and meet the required job duties as outlined in one’s job description

Circle of Care reserves the right to discipline and, in certain cases, terminate the employment of any employee for participating in any conduct that violates Circle of Care’s Code of Conduct standards and policies. It is expected that employees and volunteers will treat each other and clients with courtesy and respect.

Employees and volunteers will:

• Maintain a supportive environment for working and learning
• Start work on time
• Notify their supervisor at the earliest reasonable opportunity if, for reasons such as accident or illness they are unable to come to work and will arrange in advance for those absences that can be foreseen
• Provide their manager with appropriate notice of requests for vacation time
• Use all work hours productively and ensure that their activities in the workplace do not negatively affect their department or agency.
• Maintain a scent-free environment in the workplace
• Uphold the dress code policy
• Adhere to all Circle of Care policies and procedures.
• Respect confidentiality in all matters

Circle of Care reserves the right to make changes to policies as deemed necessary.

Circle of Care uses a two-factor authentication approach when working with clients to ensure that clients receive the service or information intended for them.

This prevents incidents such as medication errors, errors in care, discharge of the wrong client from a service, and privacy breaches.

The two-factor authentication questions used will be the person’s full name and at least one other identifying information, including:

• Date of birth
• Confirmed home address
• Confirmed phone number

When an employee has a long-term relationship providing care to the client (e.g., Adult Day Program, Kosher Meals on Wheels, or long-term personal care provided by a personal support worker), facial recognition is an acceptable practice.

Staff and volunteers will engage with clients and families to confirm their identity, including explaining the reason for this safety practice.

Before proceeding with receiving or providing care in the home:

1. Confirm the full name of the client with the client directly, or with the Substitute Decision Maker or Power of Attorney
2. Use the confirmed home address