Help across the whole day
Your parent needs a hand getting up, washing, eating and walking, with gaps too short for drop-in visits to cover.
Private home care · Ottawa
Live-in Care in Ottawa
A personal support worker (PSW) lives in your parent's home, helps from breakfast through bedtime, and sleeps there overnight. A second PSW takes over on the main caregiver's days off.
A Registered Nurse from our Ottawa team writes the care plan, and clinical advice is available by phone 24/7.
Free in-home assessment. No obligation.
How It Works
A Main Caregiver Who Lives In
With live-in care, a PSW stays in your parent's home around the clock while on duty. A PSW is a caregiver who helps with personal tasks such as washing, dressing, eating and getting around the house. By day the live-in PSW works through the care plan at your parent's pace. At night they go to a bedroom set aside for them and sleep until morning.
This arrangement suits a parent who needs help across the day and has quiet nights. When nights bring frequent calls, 24/7 home care in Ottawa is the better match: PSWs work set shifts in turn, and one of them is awake all night.
Talk through your optionsWho It Suits
When a Live-in PSW Is the Right Choice
Our nurse asks how your parent's days and nights go before suggesting an arrangement.
Settled nights
Your parent usually sleeps until morning and rarely needs anything after lights out.
Coming home after hospital
After surgery or an illness, the live-in PSW helps with the day's routine and with moving about, following the care plan. Our nurses go over the discharge instructions and set up the support your parent needs at home.
Memory loss and restful evenings
For a parent living with dementia who sleeps well, a live-in PSW keeps each day structured. Our Ottawa team also uses Sensory Tool Kits: personalized items such as tactile objects, music and familiar scents.
Comparing Arrangements
Live-in Care and 24/7 Shift Care Side by Side
Both options keep a PSW in the home at every hour. With 24/7 care, someone also stays awake through the night.
Scroll the table sideways to compare care options.
| Live-in care | 24/7 shift care | |
|---|---|---|
| Caregivers | A main PSW who lives in, plus a relief PSW for days off | A team of PSWs who take set shifts in turn |
| Overnight | The PSW sleeps in the home during agreed hours | A PSW is up and on duty all night |
| Suits a parent who | Needs steady help by day and rarely wakes | Needs checks, help or supervision after dark |
| Space in the home | A bedroom the caregiver can use | No bedroom required for staff |
| Signs to revisit the choice | Calls for help after bedtime become frequent | Nights grow calm and most needs fall in daylight |
Sleep and Days Off
Rest Hours, Relief Cover and the Caregiver's Room
Our nurse writes the PSW's sleep hours and days off into the care plan, so everyone in the household knows the timetable.
The caregiver needs a private bedroom with a comfortable bed and space for clothes, access to a washroom at any hour, and room in the kitchen for their own food.
Before each break, a relief PSW arrives, takes a handover and follows the plan as written until the main caregiver returns. We aim to send the same person each time.
Through the Day
What a Live-in PSW Helps With
Every task below appears in the care plan, set to your parent's own timetable.
Personal care
Help in the bathroom, with showering, shaving or hair, and with choosing clothes and dressing.
Meals and fluids
Cooking food that suits your parent's diet and tastes, plus reminders to drink water.
Medication reminders
A prompt for each dose at the times the nurse has written into the plan.
Moving about safely
A steady arm on the stairs, help in and out of chairs and bed, and short walks when your parent feels up to them.
Housekeeping and errands
Laundry, dishes, tidying and errands.
Conversation and company
Talk, cards, music and reading together.
Dementia support
Structure and gentle engagement for a parent living with memory loss.
Ontario Rules
Live-in Work and Ontario's Employment Standards Act
Ontario's Employment Standards Act (ESA) is the provincial law on basic workplace rights. Under it, a caregiver whom a householder employs directly to look after an older, ill or disabled person at home is a domestic worker. A caregiver hired by a business or agency falls outside that definition.
Domestic workers are owed limits on hours and set rest periods. For most employees, the ESA caps required work at 8 hours a day, or a longer regular workday where one is set, and 48 hours a week. Going past either needs a written or electronic agreement. Most workers must also get at least 11 hours in a row off each day, and 24 in a row each week or 48 every 2 weeks.
This summary is general information only. A family that hires a live-in caregiver directly becomes the employer and takes on these rules. With Integracare, that work sits with us. The PSW comes to you through our Ottawa team, which arranges sleep hours, days off and relief cover.
Nursing Oversight
Ottawa Nurses Behind Each Live-in Plan
Before care starts, a Registered Nurse (RN) visits your parent at home, assesses their needs and writes the care plan. The same team keeps watch over that plan and updates it as health changes.
Your family and the live-in PSW can reach our nursing team by phone 24/7. Supervision and care management are available in English or French.
Kristine McGinn, who leads Integracare in Ottawa, holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) and has more than 25 years in health care.
Relatives you invite can sign in to the Family Room, our online portal, to check the schedule and read caregiver notes as they are recorded.
Plan a Live-in Arrangement With Our Ottawa Team
Tell us how your parent's days and nights usually go. Our nurse will suggest live-in or 24/7 shift care and explain how sleep hours and days off would work in your home.
Local Resources
Other Home Care Help in Ottawa
Other organizations run these programs. Each sets its own rules, and Integracare is separate from all of them.
Ontario Health atHome: publicly funded home care for people who qualify. A care coordinator sets the services after an assessment, and Integracare visits can be added around them. In the Champlain area, which includes Ottawa, call 1-800-538-0520 (toll-free) or 613-745-5525.
Ontario Caregiver Helpline: free phone support for family caregivers, answered 24/7. Staff point callers to local support groups and programs for the person receiving care. It is not a crisis line. Call 1-833-416-2273.
Questions & Answers
Frequently Asked Questions About Live-in Care in Ottawa
Answers to what Ottawa families ask before a live-in PSW moves in.
How do we decide between live-in care and 24/7 care?
Start with your parent's nights. A live-in PSW sleeps during agreed hours, so the arrangement works best when your parent rarely needs help after bedtime. If your parent calls out several times a night or tends to wander, our nurse will likely recommend 24/7 care.
Who is with my parent on the caregiver's days off?
A relief PSW. They arrive before the main caregiver leaves, get a handover and follow the same care plan.
Can we speak with the nursing team in French?
Yes. Our Ottawa team supervises care and manages plans in English and French, so your family can use whichever language suits you.
What happens if my parent's needs change?
The nurse reviews the care plan as health changes and adjusts the tasks. If nights become harder, we can switch the arrangement to 24/7 shift care.
How do we get started?
Call our Ottawa office at (613) 212-7567 or request a free assessment online. A Registered Nurse visits the home, meets your parent and writes the care plan before the live-in PSW arrives.
Ottawa Services
More Care in Ottawa
Home Care in Ottawa
24-Hour Home Care in Ottawa
Respite Care in Ottawa
Personal Support Workers in Ottawa
Dementia Care in Ottawa
Nursing Care in Ottawa
Palliative Care in Ottawa
We also provide live-in care in Greater Toronto and live-in care in Winnipeg.
Free In-Home Assessment
Contact Integracare Ottawa About Live-in Care
Tell us what you need. A nurse will contact you within one business day.
343 Preston Street, Suite 1104, Ottawa, ON K1S 1N4
Prefer to talk?
Ottawa(613) 212-7567 ↗We serve families across the Ottawa region. See the areas we cover
Clinically reviewed by Bethel McMaster, BScN, RN ·