Personal Support Workers (PSWs) work in a wide variety of settings and perform a wide variety of tasks. Broadly speaking, PSWs work with individuals who need help with everyday activities such as meal preparation, feeding, lifting and transferring, bathing, dressing, grooming, oral hygiene, exercise, and foot care.
They may also support clients with medications—either by assisting directly or providing reminders—and help maintain routines that promote independence and recovery. In this way, PSWS play an important role keeping people healthy, out of the hospital and living independently.
In addition, some PSWs take on light housekeeping tasks like laundry, cleaning, and dishwashing, helping with chores clients are unable to manage on their own.
Equally important, PSWs offer companionship. Sometimes, simply spending time together can make all the difference in someone’s day.
You will find PSWs working in every type of health care setting across Ontario, including:
People's homes: Home care PSWs visit people in their own homes and apartments
Hospitals: Hospital PSWs are an integral part of the broader hospital health care team
Long-term care homes: In a long-term care home, PSWs are the critical caregivers who provide residents with a high quality of life
Community care settings: PSWs perform a wide variety of roles in community care settings to help patients gain and regain independence and live more comfortably