The Personal Support Worker Program Standard in Ontario: An Alternative to Self-Regulation?

Personal support workers (PSWS) provide hands-on assistance in a variety of long-term care and community settings. The question of whether psws should become regulated similar to other self-regulating health professions is a perennial concern in policy circles, especially because of the intimate nature of their work and the potential for abuse of clients and workers. This article explores a chain of policy decisions around psws in ontario culminating in the creation of a common educational standard for psw programs, titled the psw program standard. We argue that these policy developments may represent an alternative pathway to self-regulation of an essential workforce.