Home Care Ontario, The Voice of Home Care in Ontario™, is a member-based organization representing providers of quality home care services from across Ontario.
In Ontario, service provider organizations are responsible for providing nursing care, home support services, personal care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, respiratory therapy, infusion pharmacy, social work, dietetics, speech language therapy and medical equipment and supplies in the home to individuals of all ages.
Home Care Ontario advocates for the creation of a strong, reliable and accessible home care system that supports all Ontarians.
Driving a strong and connected home care system.
Helping reinvent great care.
Established in 1987, Home Care Ontario is a member-based Association with a mandate to promote growth and development of the home care sector and driving a strong and connected home care system. Home Care Ontario members include those engaged in and/or supportive of home-based health care, many of whom have been doing so for over 50 years.
In Ontario, service provider organizations are responsible for providing nursing care, home support services, personal care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, respiratory therapy, infusion pharmacy, social work, dietetics, speech language therapy and medical equipment and supplies in the home to individuals of all ages. An estimated 54 million hours of publicly and family-funded home care service is provided annually across the province.
The Board of Directors of Home Care Ontario endorses the principles of the Canada Health Act and confirms the values of the Canadian health care system. This system enables a range of essential health care services available to all citizens of Canada on the basis of need, not ability to pay. The Canada Health Act recognizes home care as an element in the category of “extended health services” and, as such, it is not an insured health service to which the principles of the Act apply. Each province and territory in Canada has a unique system of home care delivery that is publicly-funded, administered and delivered by both the public system and family-funded organizations.
In Ontario, home care was formally established in 1970 and is considered to be a critical component of the formal health care system. Since establishment, the home care system has gone through a number of changes, evolving and maturing to the comprehensive program of today. Home Care Ontario supports the unique system of home care delivery in Ontario that is publicly-funded and administered; and, delivered by service provider organizations, both by the broader public sector and family-funded sector.
Home Care Ontario advocates for the funding and resourcing of a strong, publicly-funded home care system in Ontario. This system supports the importance of driving quality and value in home care, including supporting competitive procurement where it provides the opportunity for higher quality and value.
Home Care Ontario believes that all home health care service providers must be held equally accountable for the delivery of the highest standard of care to Ontarians.
Organizations providing publicly-funded services through Ontario Health atHome (formerly HCCSS) must have achieved accreditation by approved organizations such as Accreditation Canada, FOCUS Accreditation, Canadian Centre for Accreditation, and CARF Canada, and/or be registered with the International Standards Association (ISO).
Home Care Ontario also supports the role and value of family-funded home care provider organizations delivering care in addition to the publicly-funded and administered system. Members of Home Care Ontario, which are accredited or in the process of seeking accreditation status, offer home care services beyond the publicly-funded levels in order to respond to the growing needs of individual Ontarians. It is currently estimated that 20 million hours of home care service are family-funded per year.
Chair
Spectrum Health Care
Past Chair
CBI Health
Vice Chair
CarePartners
Secretary-Treasurer
Bayshore HealthCare
Director / NFP Representative
St. Joseph’s Home Care
Director
Calea
Director / Therapy Representative
CommuniCare Therapy
Director
Nightingale Nursing
Director / Family-Funded Representative
GEM Health Care
Director
ParaMed Home Health Care
Director
Carefor Health & Community Services
Susan D. VanderBent, B.A., BSW, MSW, MHSc, CHE is the Chief Executive Officer of Home Care Ontario representing over 50 home care organizations delivering critical front-line care needed by Ontarians every day – nursing, personal care and therapies.
A social worker by profession, Sue has worked in acute care, long term care, community support, mental health and addictions and home and community care. An accomplished speaker and writer, Ms. VanderBent presents at many public and professional forums regarding the role and value of the home and community care system as a key element of health care system sustainability.
Sue is an Associate Professor (PT) in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University and served a 10-year term as Domain Planner for Communication Skills at the Michael G. DeGroote Undergraduate School of Medicine. Sue currently teaches in, and coordinates, the Communication Skills curriculum for the McMaster Physician Assistant Program and teaches in the Program for Interprofessional Practice, Education and Research (PIPER).
Sue is a Board Member of the Empire Club of Canada, Past Chair of the Ontario Health Providers’ Alliance (OHPA) and Past President of the Society of Graduates, University of Toronto, IHPME program. Prior to joining Home Care Ontario, Ms. VanderBent was the Director of Rehabilitation Services and Social Work at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Hamilton, Ontario. As part of that role, she designed and developed the first Women’s Addiction Centre in Hamilton and the St. Joseph’s Centre for Acute Injury Rehabilitation.
Sue is a committed community volunteer and led a major restoration of the Church of the Ascension, a 160-year-old heritage-designated church in downtown Hamilton in 2015-17.
