Family Caregiving
Supporting an Older Person With Poor Appetite
Caring ways to help an older relative eat and drink more, with a food and fluid chart, small meals and a weight check log.
C$19.99Buy
Courses for family caregivers, and for looking after yourself too
Three practical courses for people caring for a parent, partner or other relative: organize care as a family, manage the strain on you and help someone who is not eating enough.
- 3 courses
- Tools in every course
- Certificate included
You are a family caregiver if you regularly help someone with health, daily tasks, appointments or emotional support, whether or not you live with them and whether or not you are related. Many people do not use the word until the role has already grown, often alongside a job and their own family.
If caring means time away from work, the federal Employment Insurance (EI) program has caregiving benefits. The Family Caregiver Benefit for Adults offers up to 15 weeks, the Family Caregiver Benefit for Children up to 35 weeks and Compassionate Care Benefits up to 26 weeks. You do not have to be related to the person, but they must consider you to be like a family member, and a doctor or nurse practitioner has to complete a medical certificate. Service Canada can confirm whether you qualify.
Our courses focus on the day-to-day side: writing down a care plan everyone can follow, sharing tasks fairly, noticing your own stress before it builds and helping an older person keep eating and drinking enough. For local services such as home care or respite, ask the person's family doctor or nurse practitioner, try your provincial health line, reached on 811 across most of Canada, or call 211 for community services where it is available.
All family caregiving courses
Family Caregiving
Managing Caregiver Stress
For family caregivers running on empty: track the pressure, plan real breaks, map your support and build a self-care plan that fits.
C$24.99Buy
Family Caregiving
Building a Family Care Plan
One clear plan for caring as a family: who does what and when, key contacts, an emergency sheet and a schedule everyone can see.
C$24.99Buy
Choosing a caregiver course
- Getting organized: Building a Family Care Plan helps you write a care plan, divide roles with a shared rota and keep key contacts and emergency information in one place.
- Feeling stretched: Managing Carer Stress uses a stress tracker, a support map and a respite planner to help you build breaks into the week.
- Worried about meals: Supporting an Older Person With Poor Appetite covers small frequent meals, fluids, ways to make food more appealing, a weight check log and the signs that need a health care provider.
If the person you support is a parent, the healthy aging topic has a course on supporting an aging parent and planning care with siblings.
What the caregiving tools do
- Care plan template: routines, medicines list, preferences and who to call, in a document the whole family can download.
- Roles and rota planner: who does what and when, so tasks do not fall on one person by default.
- Key contacts and emergency information sheets: the details paramedics, hospital staff or a substitute caregiver will need.
- Stress tracker, support map and respite planner: notice patterns in your own stress and plan time off.
- Food and fluid chart: a simple daily record to share with the person's health care provider.
When to get help
Call 911 if the person you care for has chest pain, trouble breathing, signs of a stroke, a serious fall or sudden severe confusion.
Contact their family doctor or nurse practitioner, or call 811, if they are eating or drinking much less, losing weight, more confused than usual or falling.
Look after yourself too. If you feel exhausted, hopeless or unable to cope, talk to your own family doctor or nurse practitioner. If caring has left you thinking about suicide, you can reach the free 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline by call or text, day and night.
Family caregiving courses: your questions
Am I a caregiver if I do not live with the person?
Yes. Helping with shopping, appointments, paperwork, phone calls or emotional support from a distance is still caregiving, and the care plan and rota tools are designed for families spread across different homes.
Can I get time off work with income support?
You may qualify for EI caregiving benefits: up to 15 weeks to care for an adult, up to 35 weeks for a child and up to 26 weeks of Compassionate Care Benefits for someone at significant risk of death. A doctor or nurse practitioner must certify the need. Service Canada decides eligibility.
Do I have to be related to claim EI caregiving benefits?
No. The person you care for must consider you to be like a family member, but you do not have to be a relative.
Can the whole family use the care plan?
Yes. You can download the plan and rota and share them with relatives, friends or paid caregivers so everyone works from the same information.
What if the person I care for can no longer make decisions?
Rules on substitute decision-makers and powers of attorney are set by each province and territory. The courses explain why planning ahead helps, but they do not give legal advice; a lawyer or notary in your province can.
Official sources
Share the load with a plan
Start the care plan template this week, then send it to one other person who helps.