Nanny agencies see strong demand for live-in care for seniors

Agencies that bring foreign workers into Canada say they're seeing a huge jump in demand for live-in caregivers who are recruited to look after senior citizens.

Having historically focused on importing live-in nannies for young children, those agencies attribute the increase to the perception that more families want the same type of care for their aging parents.

Andrea Texeira, a spokeswoman for Toronto-based Caregivers.ca, estimates that 75 per cent of the calls it receives now focus on eldercare, as opposed to child care.

Texeira says there are a couple of reasons for this trend.

Hiring a stay-at-home caregiver is less expensive than housing someone in a private care home. A caregiver costs about $1,700 a month, she says.

By comparison, keeping a senior in a private care home can cost more than $3,000 a month.

Hiring a stay-at-home caregiver also gives people the feeling that they have more control over the welfare of an aging parent, Texeira said.

"You can ensure your parents are treated well, and it's not always the same case when you're giving your parents into the hands of an organization or an institution,'' she said.

In spite of the benefits, however, there are also potential risks to hiring a caregiver from another country.

"It can be quite risky, because there's no way for you to check out their credentials or check out their experience,'' said Peter Silin, who has worked with seniors in the healthcare system. He now runs a business counseling people on care decisions.

"You are also bringing in someone who is from a different culture with a different language background a lot of times, so sometimes the way they treat older people is different from the way we would,'' he said.

Silin says foreign caregivers do give families a good option, as long as they monitor the home and keep in mind it's not a replacement for 24-hour care.