Personal assistant (care)

Home-based personal care workers provide routine personal care and assistance with activities of daily living to persons who need such care because of old age, illness, injury or other physical or mental impairment, in home settings.

• assisting patients with personal and therapeutic needs such as personal hygiene, feeding, dressing, physical mobility and exercise, communication, taking oral medication and changing dressings, in accordance with care plans prepared by health professionals;
• keeping records of patient care, changes in condition and responses to care and treatment, and reporting to health or social service professionals;
• positioning, lifting, turning and transporting patients in wheelchairs or mobile beds;
• providing patients and their families with emotional support and information, and advising on topics such as nutrition, hygiene, exercise, child care or adjustment to disability or illness;
• maintaining hygiene standards around patients by cleaning their rooms and changing bed linen, washing clothes and dishes, and cleaning the home;
• providing psychological support to the patient through conversation or reading aloud;
• planning, purchasing, preparing and serving meals to meet nutritional needs and prescribed diets;
• assisting parents and caring for newborns in the postnatal period;
• arranging appointments and accompanying patients to visits to physicians and other health professionals or running other errands.
• Examples of occupations in this unit group:
• Social assistant
• Personal assistant
• Home care orderly