Home Based Personal Care Assistant

The Course

A blend of theory and practical training, the Home Based Personal Care Assistant is a QCTO accredited occupational qualification with the course breakdown being 12% knowledge and 88% practical skills and workplace experience. All theoretical training is via our online learning platform through our Pretoria based Academy.  You will be placed within our partner organisations for your practical training.

What do Home Based Personal Care Assistant do? 

Do you have a big heart and a desire to help and care for people? If so, a career as a Home Based Personal Care Assistant may be the way to go. While these characteristics are not the only things as a Home Based Personal Care Assistant should possess, they are a great start to a very rewarding career.

Home Based Personal Care Assistant provides basic physical and emotional support to patients and their families/household members with a home-based care environment. Home Personal Care Assistants look after these frail individuals by performing the daily tasks necessary for their health. This includes helping them to dress, maintaining their personal hygiene, helping them move around, feeding them and so much more.

The role are varied and include:

Assess, plan and provide holistic (physical, spiritual, emotional and social) care and support for patients and household members.

Addresses several problems within the health care system including:

Promote, restore and maintain a person’s maximum level of comfort, function and health, including care, towards a dignified death.

Supports patients and household/family members as participants in patient care and households.

• shortage of hospital beds; inadequate number of medical, nursing and allied health professionals;
• Lack of resources;
• Overcrowded hospitals; and
• Overburdened staff which can result in an environment that is unsuitable for managing patients with terminal diseases and increase costs of institutional care.

Discharging patients into the care of an HBC programme allows for a shorter hospital stay, and provides the health care system with additional cost-effective beds, at home.

This part qualification is therefore essential in supporting the National strategies for providing quality and affordable health care to all the citizens of South Africa.

Further Career Opportunities

1. Find employment.

• Major employer is Department of Health (Clinics, rehabilitation centres, testing and counselling centres) through its implementation of Primary Health Care Re-engineering under NHI.
• Other employers include Schools, waste disposal plants, water purification plants, local municipalities, Mental Health Centres, Old age homes, mines, Health Research centres, Cancer foundation, heart foundation, diabetes foundation, social department, department of housing and NGOs.

2. Enrol for higher level qualifications such as:

• Occupational Certificate: Health Promotional Officer, Level 3
• Occupational Certificate: Home Based Personal Care Worker, Level 3