Home care opens door to career possibilities; Statistics show increasing need for personal support workers

Kerry Harrison divides her work week between two elderly Toronto women. She spends four weekday mornings in one woman's home, and three weekday evenings and Sunday mornings in the other's. Both women are in the early stages of dementia, and Harrison helps them bathe, prepares meals, does light housework and spends plenty of time chatting and doing crossword puzzles with them. "It doesn't seem like work," says Harrison, 45, who receives $20 an hour for her services. "I feel like I'm being paid to hang out with people I like." Harrison is a personal support worker (PSW), a career that will see an increase in demand in coming years as Canada's population ages. After many years of working as a nanny, she completed George Brown College's personalĀ support worker program last spring. The two-semester, 700-hour program trains students for basic front-line health care work in hospitals, homes for the elderly, group homes, hospices and as support workers in private homes. Tuition f…
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