When the Caring About Care Workers: Centring Immigrant Women Personal Support Workers in Toronto’s Home Care Sector report was released by Social Planning Toronto and Dr. Naomi Lightman of Toronto Metropolitan University, I was asked to speak at the launch.
I had supported the study by connecting the researchers with PSWs I work with, and hearing their stories reflected in the report was both validating and challenging. The findings mirror what I witness every day as an Employment and Family Support Worker — the unpaid labour, the unsafe conditions, the immigration barriers, and the emotional weight carried by the women who hold Ontario’s home care system together.
As an Employment and Family support worker at North York Community House (NYCH), I have witnessed firsthand the challenges faced by Personal Support Workers (PSWs). The realities outlined in the Caring About Care Workers report reflect what PSWs share with me every day — staying beyond scheduled hours, taking on additional responsibilities, providing emotional support, and performing tasks that go uncompensated simply because they do not want clients to be left without care.
I have heard stories from PSWs who must pay out of pocket for transportation, essential training, supplies, and long unpaid travel times between clients. Health and safety risks in private homes are constant concerns, with workers describing unsafe, unsanitary, or unpredictable environments, lack of proper equipment, and the vulnerability of working alone.
I’ve also worked with PSWs who lost their jobs simply because they lacked the knowledge and skills to understand dementia-related behaviours, including physical and verbal aggression or other challenging symptoms. Even before the pandemic, many PSWs were asking for more education on how to support clients living with dementia. In response, NYCH partnered with the Alzheimer Society of Toronto to offer Dementia Foundations training.
For PSWs working under a temporary work permit, losing a job doesn’t just affect their income — it can jeopardize their immigration status in Canada. This adds an extra layer of pressure and vulnerability for workers who are already essential to our care system.
What is often unseen — and what many people do not know — is the immigration pathway through which a large portion of PSWs arrive in Canada. While I have worked with diverse communities, approximately 80–90% of the PSWs I support are Filipino women who came through caregiver or home care provider programs. Many are internationally educated nurses with strong clinical backgrounds. However, restrictive work permit conditions prevent them from upgrading their credentials or pursuing bridging programs needed to return to their profession. By the time they become eligible to reunite with their families, they are often financially and mentally exhausted — carrying years of isolation, economic hardship, and emotional strain. As a result, many remain in PSW roles not out of choice, but out of necessity — accepting low wages, precarious work, and difficult conditions while supporting newly arrived loved ones and repaying substantial debts from immigration fees, recruitment costs, and the high cost of living.
These systemic pressures — unstable schedules, low pay, limited career pathways, and a lack of adequate protections — directly impact PSWs’ mental health, financial stability, and overall wellbeing. And if these conditions continue, the impact on home care in Ontario will be profound.
The wellbeing of PSWs is inseparable from the wellbeing of the clients they serve.
This is why improving wages, stabilizing hours, providing paid travel time, and guaranteeing safe working conditions are foundational steps to retaining skilled workers and restoring dignity to this profession. And beyond individual reforms, when workers are respected, protected, and fairly compensated, clients receive safer, more consistent, and more compassionate care. If we want a sustainable home care system that truly meets the needs of our communities, investing in PSWs is the only path forward.
The key research findings in the Caring About Care Workers report are unfortunately not new to me. After more than 13 years working alongside PSWs, we are still confronting the same challenges highlighted in this study. In my role as an Employment and Family Support Worker, my contributions often focus on résumé support, connecting families to financial resources, and listening to my clients, yet I still feel deeply that I — and we as a system — should be doing more.
Many of the supports we provide feel palliative, addressing immediate needs but unable to break through the entrenched systemic barriers that lead us to the same dead ends.
For too long, part of the problem has been the lack of strong data and the underuse of our platforms to elevate PSWs’ lived experiences. This is why these research findings matter: they validate what PSWs have been voicing for years.
This work makes me hopeful that we are finally moving in the right direction — toward change that is grounded in data, lived experiences, and collective action.