A road map to building ethics capacity in the home and community care and support services sector

There are unique ethical issues that arise in home and community care because of its locus and range of service. However, the academic literature on ethical issues in the sector of home and community care and support remains minimal. Opportunities for education, collaboration and exchange among professionals and care providers are also severely limited. Although the proposed solution of developing ethics capacity in the home care setting is over 20 years old, only modest progress had been made until recently. This article introduces the Community Ethics Network (CEN), a replicable network of home and community care agencies in the Greater Toronto Area. Its achievements can be attributed to a commitment to work toward a common approach to ethical decision-making and to a focus on education, case reviews and policy development. CEN has produced numerous positive outcomes; key among these is the development and delivery of standardized training on ethics to more than 2,000 front-line staff of diverse backgrounds/professions and representing over 40 different organizations.