Aging & Society: Eighth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Directly-funded home care is a policy mechanism designed to relieve the strain on home care. This model is expanding throughout Canada and the developed world. Direct funding (DF) programs provide individuals or families with cash to arrange their own home care services. DF often includes hiring and managing workers directly. In this paper, we share findings of a comprehensive inventory of Canadian DF programs, gathered through qualitative interviews and questionnaires conducted with program administrators. There are twenty-one DF programs in Canada, which include caregiver respite programs, individualized funding for people with cognitive disabilities, and home-care programs for older people and people with disabilities. We describe the programs and introduce two themes that emerged across the country. The first theme considers the lack of information on the workers employed through DF home care. Care workers in a variety of settings are an under-documented population. This issue is exacerbated by the informal hiring practices and low-entry requirements of DF, paradoxically two of the programmatic features lauded by clients. In addition, we consider the increasing role of agency care providers within DF schemes (as opposed to direct hire), considering the ways that these organizations can conflict with some of the DF policy aims. In doing so, we demonstrate the diversity, and at times, inequity, in available DF options in Canada.