Hygiene and grooming
Showers, sponge baths, hair washing, shaving and mouth care. The aide reports any red or sore skin to the nurse.
Private home care · Winnipeg
Health Care Aides at Home in Winnipeg
Hands-on help with washing, dressing, meals and moving safely around the house.
A nurse writes and supervises each care plan. You deal directly with our Winnipeg team.
Free in-home assessment. No obligation.
The role
The Work of a Health Care Aide
In Manitoba, a Health Care Aide (HCA) is a caregiver who helps with the physical side of daily life: washing, dressing, using the toilet, getting in and out of bed, and eating. HCAs work in the province's hospitals, personal care homes (long-term care) and home care programs.
Integracare sends screened, trained HCAs to clients across Winnipeg and surrounding area. One household might want an aide every morning for a shower, a change of clothes and breakfast. Another might want someone most afternoons while an adult child is at work. HCA visits are one part of our home care in Winnipeg. The same plan can add nursing or dementia care.
Talk through your optionsOn a visit
An Aide's Daily Tasks
The care plan sets which of these happen, and when.
Dressing
Clothes chosen for the weather, with boots and a parka for a winter outing.
Toilet and incontinence care
Getting to the bathroom or a commode, fresh pads when needed, and skin kept clean and dry.
Getting up and around
Help from bed to chair, a steady arm for someone using a cane or walker, and a mechanical lift when the plan calls for one.
Mealtimes
Setting up a tray, cutting food, reminders to drink, and help with eating for weak or shaky hands.
Medication reminders
A prompt at the right hour to take the doses in the pharmacy's blister pack. The aide notes it in the visit record.
Day to day
Companionship and Homemaking
A visit can include conversation, outings and light housework. Aides talk over the news, play cards, sort old photos or help place a call to a grandchild. Going out might mean a walk once the sidewalks are clear, the library, coffee with a friend or company on a trip to the doctor.
Homemaking covers cooking lunch together, writing the week's grocery list, washing dishes, doing laundry and changing the sheets. Aides also run errands, such as picking up prescriptions. For a person living with memory loss, aides keep waking, meals and bedtime at steady hours.
When a spouse or adult child does most of the caring, these hours give them time for work, sleep or their own appointments. For longer breaks, see our respite care.
Extra support
Adding Private Hours to Public Home Care
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) delivers public home care in the city. A case coordinator, who is a health care professional, assesses what help the person needs. Clients who qualify agree on a care plan with their family and the coordinator.
Under provincial policy, the coordinator assigns the least personal care needed to maintain the person's health. The assessment also looks at whether family and other caregivers are able and available to give or arrange that help. Manitoba's home care guide makes the client and family responsible for having a backup plan.
Private HCA hours can be that backup. They can also fill the time around the public plan: a longer morning, an evening visit, weekend help while relatives are away, or outings and company, which fall outside WRHA's list of home care services.
Some WRHA clients use Self and Family Managed Care (SFMC). The client, or a relative acting as Family Manager, receives funding to arrange the personal care and household help the client was assessed as needing. WRHA says the manager may hire an agency with that funding or employ staff directly, so it can pay for Integracare's Health Care Aides. WRHA funds up to a set number of hours each week at its own hourly rate. The family pays the difference between that rate and ours, and any hours above the funded maximum are paid privately. GST does not apply to care paid for with government funding. Current WRHA clients can ask their case coordinator whether SFMC suits them.
5 steps
How Our Nurses Plan and Supervise Care
Integracare is nurse-led in every city it serves, Winnipeg included.
1. First call
Phone (204) 977-7575 or send the form. Someone from our team replies within one business day. Tell us if the situation is urgent and we will prioritize it the same day.
2. Assessment at home
A Registered Nurse (RN) visits free of charge to learn about the person's health, routines, the layout of the rooms and the help the family wants.
3. A written care plan
The nurse sets out each task and visit time, how to move the client safely, and which changes the aide must report.
4. Matching an aide
We choose an HCA for the skills the plan needs, the hours you want and a good personal fit.
5. Ongoing supervision
Aides record every visit. The RN oversees the plan and updates it when health or routines change. Clients and aides have 24/7 nursing support.
Next step
Arrange a Nurse's Visit at Home
Tell us which hours are hardest to cover now, and we will set a time for the nurse's assessment visit.
Scope of work
Who Decides an Aide's Duties
Health Care Aides in Manitoba are unregulated care providers. No governing body oversees them. Each employer defines what its aides may do.
RRC Polytech runs a Health Care Aide program that trains students to help home care clients with daily activities under the supervision of a nurse. Integracare works the same way: our RN decides what an aide does for each client. Every Winnipeg HCA must be qualified in CPR and First Aid.
When health needs grow past an aide's role, we add nursing care to the same plan.
Your local team
Who You Deal With in Winnipeg
Dennis Fancy is Director of Integracare Winnipeg and a pharmacist (Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, University of Saskatchewan). In more than 20 years in health care, Dennis has spent over a decade leading home care organizations in Western Canada. The Winnipeg team handles bookings, changes and concerns.
Integracare has cared for Canadian families since 1991. Relatives you invite, in Winnipeg or elsewhere, can use the Family Room, our online portal, to see visit schedules and read caregiver notes as they are recorded.
More reading for Winnipeg families
Why Waiting Too Long for Home Care Can Backfire
Many Winnipeg families delay arranging care until a crisis forces the issue. Here's why that wait is riskier than it looks, and how to act sooner.
Home from Hospital, Waiting on Home Care: What Winnipeg Families Do
When a Winnipeg hospital discharges your parent before public home care can start, there are practical ways to bridge the gap safely. Here's what families typically do.
What Your Hospital Discharge Planner Doesn't Tell You
Hospital discharge happens faster than most families expect, and the gap between leaving hospital and getting home care in place can be stressful. Here's what Winnipeg families need to know.
Good to know
Health Care Aide Questions From Winnipeg Families
Can we arrange private hours before WRHA finishes its assessment?
Yes. You book private care directly with Integracare, at any point in the WRHA process. According to WRHA data reported by CBC in April 2026, the median wait for a home care assessment in the Winnipeg health region was 14 to 16 days between 2021 and 2025.
Should we tell our WRHA case coordinator about private care?
Yes. WRHA bases eligibility on assessed need and on the help already in place, whether from family and friends or from other services. The coordinator needs the full picture, private care included.
We are moving a parent to Winnipeg. Is there a gap before public home care?
There can be. Canadian citizens and landed immigrants who move to Manitoba must register with Manitoba Health. If they are eligible, coverage begins on the first day of the third month after they arrive. Home care during that wait may have to be paid for. Private HCA hours can fill the gap.
Is a Health Care Aide the same as a home care attendant?
The two roles overlap. Home care attendant is a title WRHA uses for some of its own staff, who help with bathing, meals and moving clients from bed to wheelchair. Manitoba's home care guide and RRC Polytech's training program use the term health care aide, and so do we.
Other Services
More Care in Winnipeg
Home Care in Winnipeg
Nursing Care in Winnipeg
Dementia Care in Winnipeg
Palliative Care in Winnipeg
24-Hour Home Care in Winnipeg
Live-in Care in Winnipeg
Respite Care in Winnipeg
Parkinson's Care in Winnipeg
Stroke Care in Winnipeg
We also provide personal support in Greater Toronto and personal support in Ottawa.
Free In-Home Assessment
Ask Our Winnipeg Team About a Health Care Aide
Send the form or call. We reply within one business day to set a time for the nurse's visit.
Call the Winnipeg line, or the toll-free number from outside Manitoba.
Prefer to talk?
Winnipeg(204) 977-7575 ↗Toll-free1 (800) 891-4197 ↗We serve families across Greater Winnipeg. See the areas we cover
Clinically reviewed by Bethel McMaster, BScN, RN ·