Know exactly what to bring, what to say, and what to expect at your publicly funded home care assessment. Two pages that can make a real difference in your outcome — for families in every province and territory.
Your publicly funded home care assessment is one of the most important conversations in the home care process — and most families go into it unprepared. Across Canada, an assessor visits for an hour or two, asks a structured set of questions, and the outcome determines what publicly funded services you receive. What you say in that visit matters.
This checklist helps you prepare. While program names differ across provinces — Ontario Health at Home, AHS Continuing Care, Health PEI, Extra-Mural New Brunswick — the core assessment process follows a similar structure nationwide. This checklist covers what documents to gather, how to describe your situation accurately, the questions the assessor is likely to ask, and the follow-up steps after the visit. Use it the day before your assessment, and bring it with you.
Walk in with the documents that shape your funding decision — and avoid the scramble of being asked for information you don't have on hand. Covers medications, discharge summaries, care plans, and Power of Attorney.
The most important factor in your outcome is how you describe your situation. This section explains why your worst day matters more than your average day — and which details assessors across Canada are specifically trained to listen for.
Home care assessments across Canada use structured tools — most provinces use an interRAI instrument; Quebec uses the ISO-SMAF. Knowing the categories in advance means no surprises and no answers you wish you'd given differently — covering daily living, medications, cognition, and support.
The visit is just the beginning. This section covers what to confirm before the assessor leaves, what to request in writing, and what to do if the services allocated fall short of what you need — including how to initiate a formal review in your province.
In most provinces, a case manager or home care coordinator visits in person, uses a standardized assessment instrument, and the outcome determines your eligibility and hours of publicly funded service. The process goes by different names:
The preparation principles in this checklist apply to all of these processes. For your province's specific entry point and phone number, see the Provincial Resource Guide.
Anyone preparing for a first home care assessment in any Canadian province or territory, families helping a parent prepare for their visit, and anyone who has had a previous assessment and wants to be better prepared for a reassessment. It's also useful for anyone who received fewer services than expected and is considering requesting a formal review.
This checklist is a companion to the Accessing Home Care: The Expanded Guide — which explains the full assessment process, how funding decisions are made, how to decode what you've been allocated, and how to formally appeal if you disagree with the outcome.
Accessing Home Care
4 chapters, 1 companion checklist. The complete picture — what assessors look for, how funding is allocated, and exactly how to appeal a decision you disagree with.
See the full guide