1. Become a WRHA Home Care client
SFMC is open to WRHA Home Care clients who qualify for attendant or homemaker services. Current clients ask their case coordinator. Anyone else calls the Home Care Intake Line at (204) 788-8330 to be assessed.
Private home care · Winnipeg
Self and Family Managed Care in Winnipeg
Use your SFMC funding for Health Care Aides from Integracare.
We employ the aides and cover their sick days and holidays. A nurse supervises every care plan.
Free in-home assessment. No obligation.
The program
What Self and Family Managed Care Is
Self and Family Managed Care (SFMC) is an option within Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) Home Care. WRHA gives funding to the client, or to a relative, to arrange the personal care and household help the client was assessed as needing. A client who runs their own care is a Self Manager. A relative who runs it is a Family Manager.
The manager chooses who gives the care and at what times. In exchange, the manager takes on the work WRHA would otherwise do: finding caregivers, setting their schedule and arranging cover when one cannot come. Once SFMC starts, WRHA stops sending its own home care aides. Nursing and therapy from WRHA carry on as before. A manager who hires caregivers directly also becomes their legal employer, with the duties set out below.
Integracare provides Health Care Aides (HCAs) to SFMC families across Winnipeg and surrounding area, as part of our home care in Winnipeg. Our aides help with washing, dressing, meals, moving around the house and household chores.
Talk through your options5 steps
How a Family Gets SFMC Funding
WRHA runs each step and decides who qualifies.
2. The case coordinator's assessment
A WRHA case coordinator assesses the type and amount of help the client needs. That assessment sets the funding. WRHA reassesses regularly, on request and whenever needs change.
3. A signed contract with WRHA
Funding begins once the assessment is done and the manager has signed an SFMC contract with WRHA. The contract sets the number of hours WRHA funds each week and the hourly rate it pays.
4. A separate bank account
The manager opens an account used only for SFMC money. WRHA reviews it through reports twice a year and through audits.
5. Choose who gives the care
The manager can employ caregivers directly or hire an agency such as Integracare with the funding.
Two ways to use the funding
Employing Caregivers Yourself or Hiring an Agency
A manager who employs caregivers directly becomes their employer. That means registering with the Canada Revenue Agency, deducting income tax, Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Employment Insurance (EI) from each pay, registering with the Workers Compensation Board (WCB) of Manitoba, and following Manitoba's employment standards on vacation and holiday pay. Manitoba's home care guide also makes the manager responsible for ensuring Workers Compensation coverage, a legal duty of every employer. A payroll company can take on part of the paperwork for a fee.
A manager who hires Integracare hands that work to us. Our aides are Integracare employees, so we recruit, train and pay them and cover them with WCB. The manager still decides the schedule with us and stays responsible to WRHA under the contract.
Our part
What Integracare Handles for SFMC Families
The manager keeps the decisions. We take on the daily running of the care.
Hiring and training
We recruit, screen and train each Health Care Aide. Every aide we send in Winnipeg holds current CPR and First Aid.
Payroll and WCB
We pay our aides and handle their tax, CPP and EI deductions and WCB coverage. You pay one invoice.
Cover for absences
Under SFMC, arranging backup care is the manager's job. When an aide is sick or on holiday, our Winnipeg team sends a replacement.
A nurse's care plan
A Registered Nurse (RN) builds the care plan from the WRHA assessment, decides what each aide does and checks in as needs change.
Records for your reports
Each monthly invoice lists every visit by date and hours, to help with the reports you send WRHA twice a year.
The Family Room
Relatives you invite can see the visit schedule and read caregiver notes online in the Family Room, our family portal.
Costs
How SFMC Funding and Our Rate Fit Together
WRHA funds up to a set number of hours each week at its own hourly rate. Integracare's rate is higher than WRHA's, so for each funded hour the family pays the difference.
Hours past the funded maximum, such as an evening visit or weekend help while relatives are away, are paid privately at our regular rate.
Care for a client who receives publicly funded home care, SFMC included, is exempt from GST.
Call our Winnipeg team with your funded hours and we will explain our rate and what the family would pay each month.
Next step
Bring Your WRHA Assessment to the First Call
Tell us your funded hours and the times of day that matter most, and we will book the nurse's visit to your home.
Family caregivers
Paying a Relative With SFMC Funding
WRHA allows SFMC funding to pay a family member only in unique circumstances, with approval from its Director of Home Care.
Manitoba's policy on engaging family members sets the test. The client must want the relative paid for the assessed care. There must be no suitable caregiver available because of the kind of care needed, a rural or remote location, or a cultural or language barrier. WRHA must also weigh the family's circumstances, and the care plan must build in respite for the relative.
When a relative already gives most of the care, paid hours from Integracare can give them regular time off. See our respite care in Winnipeg.
Your local team
Who Runs Integracare in Winnipeg
Dennis Fancy leads our local team as Director of Integracare Winnipeg. A pharmacist by training, Dennis has worked in health care for more than 20 years and led home care organizations in Western Canada for over a decade.
Call the Winnipeg line about SFMC, your funded hours or a change to the schedule. Our team answers those questions directly.
Good to know
SFMC Questions From Winnipeg Families
Does SFMC funding pay for nursing?
SFMC funds personal care and household help. SFMC clients stay eligible for WRHA nursing and Community Therapy Services. When a family wants more nursing than WRHA provides, Integracare's private nursing is billed separately and paid privately.
Which agencies can SFMC funding pay?
WRHA leaves the choice to the manager and publishes no list of approved agencies. The manager's contract with WRHA sets the weekly hours it funds and the rate, and any agency the family chooses can be paid from that funding.
What happens when WRHA reassesses the client?
The funded hours can go up or down. Send us the new hours after each reassessment and our nurse will adjust the schedule and the care plan.
Where can SFMC managers get advice and peer support?
WRHA refers managers from the disability community to the Independent Living Resource Centre (ILRC) in Winnipeg. ILRC offers advice on staffing, budgeting and paperwork, and a peer support network for managers. Its number is (204) 947-0194.
Can we use Integracare while we wait for SFMC to start?
Yes. Families can book private care with us at any point, then move those hours onto SFMC funding once the WRHA contract is signed.
Free In-Home Assessment
Ask Our Winnipeg Team About SFMC
Send the form or call. We reply within one business day and 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 ·