When a loved one starts needing help at home, challenges show up in different ways. That moment when your parent starts forgetting to take their medication or when your spouse struggles to manage common daily routines or worse, an emergency situation. But when it happens, you need solutions fast and you need to know they’ll be the right ones.
Private home care can be a lifeline, but not all services are created equal. So, how do you choose? This practical guide for families will help you navigate in-home senior care for the first time, highlighting the quality care must-haves: consistency, flexibility and reliability — supports that Home Instead West Vancouver prioritizes every day.
"Many families turn to private home care because it offers the flexibility and personalized support that can at times be difficult to achieve through publicly funded services. Private care allows us to focus not just on completing tasks but on caring for the whole person—and creating a safe, supportive environment around them," says Selena Ferguson, community relations liaison.
"Home Instead West Vancouver takes the stress and responsibility out of everyday caregiving tasks, like meals, medication reminders, housekeeping and personal care, so families can feel 'off the clock' knowing their loved one is in good hands," she says.
"We're a trusted partner who can really get to know your family and provide personalized, reliable support that helps your loved one live with dignity and comfort."
How and where to start
Taking the first steps is often the most difficult but easily the most crucial. It's important to understand how much private home care can help before you're in a crisis. "By then, decisions are rushed and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed," Ferguson acknowledges.
Finding the right home care for your loved one is about more than just checklists; it's about peace of mind. You want an organization you can reach 24/7 because emergencies don't just happen between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. You want a care professional you can trust, someone who will show up when they say they will and someone who will care for your parent or partner as if they were family.
These qualities are at the root of the Home Instead team, whose compassion, coupled with the right care approach, can help anyone maintain a high quality of life even in the face of physical challenges, memory loss and chronic health conditions. Ferguson advises that it all starts at the in-person in-home care consultation, with a designated care manager, the first resource of information for the care team.
"Consistently providing a familiar face is something that we really strive to make happen. It makes it so much easier for everybody, for the client, the family, the caregiver and for us, too; we don't have to constantly be reintroducing new people and it just allows for a much smoother care process. Our caregivers build trust and a routine and in a lot of cases, a lovely friendship."
Personalized care and forging quality connection
Ensuring your loved one can age in place helps them maintain a level of comfort and feel a sense of security in their own home. Nothing says well-being more than providing service that is deeply personal and relationship-based.
According to Ferguson, part of the care consultation is engaging the personality side of the equation; matching the caregiver to the client. "We have a really great success rate and it comes from understanding that not everybody is going to get along with everyone. It's unrealistic to expect that just because you have a really good caregiver, it does not mean that the client is going to fall in love with them."
"Ultimately, our success comes from knowing our team really well and the care manager doing a very thorough and warm consultation."
By providing reliable, relationship-based home care that gives families peace of mind, it allows them to focus on simply being a son, daughter or spouse again, not a full-time caregiver.
Ferguson adds, "It’s support that feels personal, not clinical and it makes all the difference."
It's the difference one client in particular knew all too well. Ferguson shared the retelling of a lovely memory of a Home Instead client, who has since passed, when one of their caregivers continued to deepen their relationship in her final days.
A self-professed British royal family fanatic, she was overjoyed to watch the televised wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in Westminster Abbey in April 2011. The days leading up to the event, she was steadily declining, no longer in her home and moved to hospice care.
The caregiver, who had been with the family long-term, got her settled into her space. Knowing her elation with the pomp and pageantry of the event, the caregiver bought her favourite nail polish colour and painted her nails while they watched the ceremony together in the middle of the night.
There, in her hospice bed, hands clasped in her lap, feeling cozy, comfortable and special, she sat savouring every royal step, someone who hadn't had her nails done in a considerably long time — had been given her own regal moment.
The beloved experience was captured in a photo, uploaded to the Home Instead digital function 'Family Room,' to be shared with her family members. It remains a cherished memory for the family and the Home Instead team — a single heartfelt gesture of genuine compassion and personalized care that made all the difference.
For more information, call 604-925-1570 or visit homeinstead.ca.
