Senior Care Information Centre for Mississauga Families
Welcome to our Information Centre, where we answer the questions Mississauga families ask us when care at home starts to change. Each section below sorts the common situations we hear about, explains the options in plain language, and points you to the right local service and a next step for when you are ready to talk with our team.
Key Takeaways
- This Information Centre gathers Mississauga senior care resources by situation, then connects each one to the local service that fits your family.
- Around 771,939 people in Canada were living with dementia as of January 2025, per the Alzheimer Society of Canada, and dementia care is one of six care areas covered here.
- In 2022, 42% of Canadians aged 15 and older, about 13.4 million people, provided unpaid care, per Statistics Canada, so respite for family caregivers has a section of its own.
- Everything here is general information reviewed by our local Director of Operations, not medical advice, a diagnosis, or a care recommendation.
- When you are ready, call our Mississauga team at (905) 671-4004 or reach us through our contact page to talk your situation through.
Start With the Care Decision You Are Facing
Most families do not arrive here looking for “home care” in the abstract. Something specific changed. A parent seemed confused on the phone, a hospital set a discharge date, or the person doing all the caring finally admitted they are worn out. So the easiest way to use this Centre is to start with what you are actually seeing, not with a service name.
The guide below matches the situations we hear most often to the section that will help, and to the local service each one connects to. Follow the row that sounds like your family, and you can always call us if none of them quite fits.
| What is changing at home | Where to start on this page | The local service it connects to |
| Memory changes, confusion, or safety worries | Dementia Care Resources | Alzheimer’s and dementia home care |
| The main family caregiver is exhausted | Respite and Family Caregiver Support | Respite care |
| Nights are hard, or someone should not be alone | 24-Hour and Overnight Care Decisions | 24-hour and overnight care |
| A serious, life-limiting illness at home | Palliative and End-of-Life Support | End-of-life and palliative care |
| Just home, or soon to be home, from hospital | Post-Hospital and Transition Planning | Post-hospital transition care |
| Not sure yet, just know help is needed | Choosing Home Care | Customized in-home care |
Dementia Care Resources
Dementia home care is non-medical support that helps a person living with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia manage daily life at home, through help with routines, personal care, meals, safety, and companionship, and through relief for the family. We do not diagnose or treat dementia. Our focus is a calmer, safer day and a familiar face your loved one can trust.
Dementia is common, and families in Mississauga are far from alone in facing it. The Alzheimer Society of Canada estimates that 771,939 people in Canada were living with dementia as of January 1, 2025. Many of the hardest moments come later in the day, and the Alzheimer Society of Canada notes that late-day confusion, sometimes called sundowning, can affect as many as 66% of people with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. Familiar routines and a steady presence help, and that is what our caregivers provide. For families we support across Mississauga, sending the same caregivers is often what helps that trust take hold.
For local support beyond what we provide, the Alzheimer Society of Peel offers programs, counselling, and referrals for families across Mississauga and Peel Region. To go deeper on living at home with dementia, read our guide on whether someone living with dementia can continue living at home and our practical piece on how dementia affects behaviour at home. When you want to talk about care itself, our Alzheimer’s and dementia home care page explains how we help.
Respite and Family Caregiver Support
Respite care is a planned break for the family caregiver. We step in for a few hours, an overnight, or a weekend so you can sleep, work, or simply catch your breath, and asking for it is a sign of good care rather than a failure. Most families use respite alongside their own caregiving, not instead of it.
If you are tired, you are in good company. Statistics Canada reports that 13.4 million Canadians aged 15 and older, 42% of that age group, provided unpaid care in 2022, and that 56% of caregivers said they felt tired because of it. Closer to home, the Ontario Caregiver Organization estimates that 4.2 million people in Ontario are caregivers, and its 2025 Spotlight Report found that 69% feel so burnt out they are not sure how they will continue. It is worth easing that strain before it wears you down.
Help is available today. The Ontario Caregiver Helpline runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-833-416-2273, and Ontario Health atHome coordinates publicly funded home and community care. To understand the option in full, read what respite care services in Ontario involve and how to arrange them, and if you recognize yourself in the strain, our piece on caregiver burnout symptoms and what to do about them. When you want relief arranged, our respite care page shows how it works.
24-Hour and Overnight Care Decisions
When a few hours of help a day stop being enough, families weigh more continuous support. Overnight care covers the evening through to the morning, so your loved one has a calm, familiar presence at night and the rest of the family can sleep. 24-hour care covers the whole day and night, provided by a team of caregivers who work in shifts so someone is always present and alert. Both are non-medical. We do not offer live-in care, where a single caregiver lives in the home, because a shift team keeps the support attentive around the clock.
Nights are often the trigger, and dementia is a common reason. The late-day confusion described above tends to be hardest after dark, when waking, restlessness, or moving around the home can make being alone unsafe. Steady overnight support keeps the night predictable without making it feel clinical. In our experience with local families, this decision usually follows a run of broken nights rather than a single event.
If you are weighing this decision, the dementia and respite sections above are worth reading alongside it, and a short conversation is usually the quickest way to land on the right setup. Our full 24-hour and overnight care page explains the two options side by side.
Palliative and End-of-Life Support
Palliative care is support for someone facing a serious, life-limiting illness, with the focus on comfort, easing pain and symptoms, and helping a person live as fully as they can. The Government of Ontario describes it as care that can be provided in many settings, including a person’s own home, and Health Canada notes it can begin from the time of diagnosis, not only in the final days. Our part in it is non-medical. We help with personal care, companionship, and relief for the family, and we support the medical palliative team; we do not replace it.
Families often carry these weeks without knowing what help exists. In Ontario, there is no cost to patients for medically necessary palliative care services at home, in hospices, or in hospital, and Ontario Health atHome coordinates palliative care at home and includes families in the plan. For guidance and to find hospice services near you, Hospice Palliative Care Ontario runs an information line at 1-833-621-0728. When you would like to talk about steady support at home, our end-of-life and palliative care page explains how we help.
Post-Hospital and Transition Planning
The days right after a hospital stay are a fragile window, and a little planning makes recovery safer. A 2017 Canadian Institute for Health Information analysis found that 60% of seniors first assessed in hospital entered residential care, compared with 10% of those first assessed in the community. The finding shows a strong association between where that first assessment happens and the care pathway that follows.
A good discharge plan looks ahead. Ontario Health atHome advises families to identify the support they will need before going home, such as help with personal care, medication reminders, meals, and getting to follow-up appointments. That is exactly the kind of everyday, non-medical help we provide while someone finds their feet again. For a week-by-week view of recovery at home, read our guide to post-hospital care at home for Canadian families, and when you want support arranged around a discharge date, our post-hospital transition care page walks through it.
Choosing Home Care
Choosing in-home care in Ontario usually comes down to understanding two paths and how they fit together. Publicly funded care is arranged through Ontario Health atHome after an assessment, and the province pays for it if your loved one qualifies. Privately arranged care, like ours, is paid for by the family and is flexible on hours, timing, and companionship. Many families use both, with private support filling the everyday gaps that assessed public hours do not cover.
The table below sets the two side by side so you can see where each fits.
| Publicly funded home care | Privately arranged home care | |
| How you access it | Assessment through Ontario Health atHome, based on eligibility | A direct call to a provider, on your own schedule |
| What it typically covers | Nursing and therapies, plus assessed personal support; homemaking may be included with eligible personal-support services | Personal care, companionship, home support, respite, and overnight or 24-hour care |
| Who pays | Publicly funded when eligible; some community services may involve co-payments | The family, with a plan built around your budget |
| Best for | Medically assessed needs and professional services | Flexible daily support, continuity, and filling the gaps |
The Government of Ontario confirms that home and community care can be government funded, cost-shared, or privately paid, so it is worth knowing both. Safety is often the reason families start looking, and the Public Health Agency of Canada, citing the World Health Organization, notes that about a third of older adults fall each year, which makes a plan for help at home worth having early. To recognize when it is time, read our guide on the signs an aging parent may need more help at home and our advice on how to talk to your parent about getting help. To understand what makes our approach different, our piece on Interactive Caregiving explains how we do things with your loved one, not just for them. When you are ready to shape a plan, our customized in-home care page is the place to begin.
Latest Resources
These are our most useful current guides for Mississauga families, with the broadest starting points first. Each resource is created for Mississauga families and reviewed locally for accuracy.
- Signs an Aging Parent May Need More Help at Home. The changes families tend to notice first, and what they can mean.
- Can Someone Living With Dementia Continue Living at Home? A Guide for Mississauga Families. A realistic look at staying at home with dementia.
- Post-Hospital Care at Home: A Week-by-Week Guide for Canadian Families. What recovery at home looks like, week by week.
- What Are Respite Care Services in Ontario, and How Do You Arrange Them?. How a caregiver break actually works, and how to set one up.
- Caregiver Burnout Symptoms and What You Can Do About It. How to spot burnout early and ease the load.
- How Dementia Affects Behaviour at Home: Practical Strategies for Dementia Care in Ontario. Practical ways to respond to behaviour changes.
How This Information Centre Is Kept Accurate
We want this to be a place you can trust, so we hold it to a clear standard. For health facts, public programs, and statistics, we rely on official Canadian and Ontario sources, which are listed at the end of this page, and we note when a page was reviewed so you can judge how current it is. When the facts change, we update the articles rather than leaving older ones to drift out of date. Because how care works locally matters as much as the facts, our information is also reviewed by our local team, which the next section explains.
Local Review by Brenda Rosati
This page was written by the Comfort Keepers Canada Editorial Team and reviewed by Brenda Rosati, Director of Operations and Owner of Comfort Keepers Mississauga. Brenda leads our local team and has spent years helping Mississauga families arrange respite and other care at home. She reviews our care information so it reflects how we actually work here and what local families need to know. Brenda does not give medical advice, and this page is general information rather than a diagnosis or a care recommendation.
Written by the Comfort Keepers Canada Editorial Team. Reviewed by Brenda Rosati, Director of Operations and Owner, Comfort Keepers Mississauga. Last reviewed: [add date after review].
H2: Talk With the Mississauga Team
The best next step is usually a conversation. Tell us what is changing at home, and we will help you understand the options and shape a plan that fits your loved one and your family. There is no cost and no obligation to talk it through.
Call our Mississauga office at (905) 671-4004, or reach us through our contact page, and a local team member will get back to you. You will find us at 57 Village Centre Place, Unit 201, Mississauga.
Sources
The general care guidance on this page draws on the official sources below. Details about our own services reflect how our local Mississauga office works, within our non-medical scope.
- Statistics Canada. More than half of women provide care to children and care-dependent adults, 2022.
Information Centre FAQs
How do I know which type of care my family needs?
If it is memory or safety, start with the dementia section; if the caregiver is worn out, start with respite; if the worry is worst at night, look at overnight care. The Start section near the top of this page maps more situations to the right place, and if nothing fits cleanly, a short call with our team will sort it out.
Is the information here medical advice?
No. Everything in this Centre is general, non-medical information, reviewed locally for accuracy. It can help you understand your options and plan a next step, but it is not a diagnosis or a treatment plan, and it works alongside your loved one’s own doctors rather than replacing them. For medical questions, your family physician or care team is the right place to turn.
Do you serve my part of Mississauga?
We support families across Mississauga, including Port Credit, Streetsville, Erin Mills, Cooksville, Meadowvale, Clarkson, and Malton. Coverage for a specific address can vary, so the quickest way to be sure is to call our office at (905) 671-4004 and ask. We will tell you right away whether we can help where you are.
Can Comfort Keepers work alongside publicly funded home care from Ontario Health atHome?
Yes, and many families do exactly that. Publicly funded care covers what your loved one is assessed to need, and our support commonly adds what falls outside it, such as extra hours, companionship, or overnight and weekend coverage. Call us and we will show you how the two can fit together.
