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Zareena-

Zareena Khan
Owner and Director
of Operations Manager

There are countless companies providing home care assistance, but there is only one Zareena Khan, who is the director of operations and owner of her own company, Home Care Assistance Edmonton, and that is what makes all the difference.

Employees and clients alike rave about Zareena’s obvious passion for her vocation, providing personal care and companionship for seniors and special needs children with the utmost empathy, respect, and compassion. Her high levels of integrity, understanding, and trustworthiness are the apparent reason Home Care Assistance is a preferred place of employment and make Zareena, as one grateful staff member phrased it, “the best employer I've known in my career”.

Not so surprising when you consider that, in over two decades of professional experience, Zareena has excelled at every aspect of the business from the hands-on provision of direct care to seniors herself, right on through to the managerial responsibilities of hiring, training, and organizing staff, while expertly coordinating day-to-day procedures to meet clients’ needs. Through it all, Zareena’s positive, supportive attitude never fails to ease the way, along with her overriding desire to uplift the quality of life for those in her care.

Beginning her career in the home care industry as a program administrator, Zareena was quickly promoted to management and began working with seniors and individuals with special needs. As a home care assistance instructor, she gained experience providing in-house training for the Health Care Aide certification program. An avid learner herself, she has earned two university degrees along the way in human resource management and residential interior design. She continues to augment her knowledge with ongoing education in the latest practices for enhanced client care.

Launching her own homecare assistance business was more than just the logical next step for this dedicated visionary. It was a sincerely heartfelt accomplishment for Zareena, allowing her the freedom to provide her valuable services on her own terms on a 24/7 basis, round the clock. Now, she and her team are a godsend for families and their vulnerable loved ones, providing them the help they need to remain proudly independent for as long as possible in their life’s journey and the caring, attentive companionship they’ll enjoy along the way.

Thanks to Zareena and her team, aging can now be the privilege and the joy it was meant to be. Their passion and expertise make Home Care Assistance Edmonton your natural choice to honour your loved ones in their time of need, but what truly sets the company apart from the rest is Zareena’s ongoing commitment to excellence. It’s nothing but the best for Zareena Khan’s clients because she believes with all her heart that’s what they deserve.

Melsys Fernandez

Jacqueline Mercado
Client Care Manager

Jacqueline Mercado is the Client Care Manager of Home Care Assistance Edmonton.

As a Client Care Manager, I'm responsible for planning, organizing and scheduling workers to ensure the company requirements and client expectations are met. I graduated from Isabela State University as a Hotel and Restaurant Management in the Philippines. I worked in the Hotel Industry for 2 years in the Philippines and 6 years in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai and Abu Dhabi). I applied as a live-in caregiver here in Canada year 2009-and it granted 2011. When I got my Permanent Residency, I decided to take a course as a Health Care Assistance at Drake Medox College, Vancouver B.C. year 2015. I worked as a Community Worker-II, in B.C for 4 years. We had a restaurant in B.C. in a small town, in 2018 owned by me, my husband and my relatives, I'm pretty much in charge of everything including staffing, but things did not work out well my family moved in Edmonton year March 2019. Moving in Edmonton is a big change for me and my family, I received so many job offers, but it is hard to choose the good company to work with, I choose to apply at Home Care Assistance Edmonton because they have the best reviews in the website, luckily I got hired first as a field worker, home care aide for five months, on my six months working at Home Care Assistance Edmonton, my amazing boss who is also the owner-operator of Home Care Assistance Edmonton-Zareena Ali, offered me to work as a Staffing Coordinator in Home Care Assistance Edmonton.

The reason I love working in Home Care Assistance Edmonton is we work as a team, we treasure our clients and caregivers and we have a very kind owner-operator who loves to help others, Zareena Ali. My job as a Staffing Coordinator is to make sure that our caregivers match our client's expectations and to make sure our caregivers expect the same way.

Sarah Bowling

Sedzida Dzajic
Quality Assurance Manager

Working with seniors and personal with Disabilities has been an ongoing passion, from the time I studied as a nurse in Bosnia to migrating to Canada. I have also continually found myself at my best when I can make a difference in a client’s lives. Over the past fifteen years in Canada, I have supervised and trained Healthcare Aides proper care techniques, keeping client safe and well looked after as been my primary goad. In 2018, I was nominated an International HealthCare Aide of the year by Home Care Assistance Edmonton.

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Sarah Bowling

Shereen Prasad
Human Resources Staffing

My experience within Home Care started over 10 years ago, I have gained hands on experience as a professional Health Care Aide and built my confidence in finding innovative solutions and seeing the bigger picture and benefiting from all aspects of my Health Care Aide practices. I taught myself to continue learning independently. The greatest part of being a caregiver is knowing what you do makes a real difference in people's lives. Most importantly I am excited to continue learning and pursuing the medical field for the rest of my career.

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Sarah Bowling

Dr. Bavan S. MD, BSc (Hons)
Client Care Manager
Business Development Manager

Here at home care assistance, I am the Clinical Care coordinator and Business Development manager and started helping Zareena from the bottom up. Looking back at my experience in home care and at nursing homes and integrating it with my own experiences caring for my own loved ones, I full heartedly believe that home care would bring the best life experiences and longevity for our loved ones as well as providing respite to our client’s families as well. I work with clients and their families and tailor their care plan to accommodate their individual medical, psychological, emotional and physical needs after a 1-2 hour in home assessment. The assessment will be with the client and their families so that we can get everyone’s input in regards to their loved one’s care and stream-line the best care plan for them as well as providing information on third-party resources such as government coverage and associated community facilities and benefits. Once I have formulated the care plan for your loved one, we then work with the best care staff specified for your loved one’s individual needs and set up a care team to attend to their daily routines and with constant feedback and updates, we make sure that you and your family get the best care possible.

Growing up I had always fantasized about becoming a superhero and used to mess around with my lab equipment that my mom had brought home from work. Fortunately, my parents dissuaded me from these ideas, as there aren’t ample job opportunities for Caped Crusaders. I learned that the job of a doctor required a sense of nobility, responsibility, selflessness and hard work. As I grew older I became more intrigued with the functions and malfunction of the body and how I could use my scientific mind to treat and help people. At the encouragement of many family members who were doctors or worked in science related fields and the fact that my great grandfather and his father were Ayurvedic doctors, I began to believe that being a physician was the path for me.

As I reached adolescence I began to realize that the world was not as ideal as I had once believed. My paternal grandmother began suffering from the later effects of Parkinson’s disease and helplessly watching her deteriorate until her death was a heart-wrenching experience. My dad’s family is quite big as his parents had 8 children and they all had kids, so when it came to my grandmother’s care she stayed with my aunt with home care as well as visited her other children on the weekends. As she worsened in condition, we all wanted the best for her and were grateful for what help we received from her care assistant however, at that time our family only had a few hours a week of respite. As a kid my parents and I took care of my grandmother (by myself on certain occasions) and it was very difficult with her health condition and this opened my eyes to the suffering that elders in our communities face every day, everywhere.

My family moved to London England when I was 14 and I started working as a care assistant in the BUPA care homes after school and on weekends with volunteering at the Peace hospice when I could. I got full hands on experience and just loved caring for and enlivening the lives of our elders and building genuine interests in them. When I began my studies in biomedical sciences at King’s College London, I chose courses throughout my degree that permitted me to continue my fervor for the medical sciences and allowed me to build a strong foundation of medical knowledge. During my undergraduate study, I helped organize several charity events and I also continued working part-time at the nursing home on the weekends and at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London. My experiences at the hospital gave me the opportunity to physically care for individual patients and develop rapport building skills with them, further cementing my desire to become a supporting pillar in the health field.

I then started my medical studies in the Cayman Islands and had great experiences further refining my medical knowledge and was introduced to clinical experiences. When I returned home to Milton Ontario for my study leave, my mom was taking care of her mother. My mom also has a big family as my grandparents had 11 children and most of them had kids. My grandmother and I were very close, especially when she started suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, my mother and I were her primary care takers. We did try nursing homes but, we weren’t happy with her isolation and extracting her from her familiar surroundings. During the last years of my grandmothers life, I witnessed a very bright, strong and inspiring individual who was once a leader of our community, lose her personality like it was a scent in the air and I also witnessed the emotional and physical stress that my mother endured during her care and realized that families need help to care for each other. If we had more assistance to tend to her medical needs, I believe my family could have truly enjoyed the last precious moments of her life.

After my grandmother’s passing, I finished my studies and clinical clerkships in Chicago, Birmingham England, Toronto and Hamilton with some electives in India. I then moved to Edmonton and worked with some of the most difficult and violent children who had ASD while studying for my board exams. Since then I have been working at the University of Alberta Department of Medicine’s GI and Hepatology division, studying viruses and their function in certain diseases and here at Home Care Assistance.

Once again, I am proud and eternally grateful that I will be serving my community, the elderly and those in need of help and I am looking forward to working with you and your families so that we can provide the best care possible in their own home, so feel free to reach out to us Anytime!

All the best blessings and Take care,
Sincerely,
Bavan K Sangarasivam (MD, BSc Hons)

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