TORONTO (September 12, 2000) – Canadians have a new place to turn when they need immediate, impartial assistance with finding child care, a nursing home for their aging parent, or a therapist for their personal problems. A new website, called BusyFamily Resource Centre (www.busyfamily.com), enables the average Internet-user to find personal and family care anywhere in Canada through the convenience of their personal computer.

The backbone of the BusyFamily Resource Centre is a current, telephone-verified database of over 44,000 Canadian professional service providers for children, teens, seniors and other family members. Subscribers can query the database for child care, elder care, or personal care referrals, pinpointing their search by location, cost, special needs and languages spoken to find the most appropriate caregivers.

“The process of finding adequate care providers for your child, parent, or yourself can often take days if not weeks,” said Dr. Mark Frankel, President of TakingCare Inc., the company responsible for BusyFamily. “What busyfamily.com does is empower people to find the professional resources they need within minutes, without the frustration of spending hours on the phone or fruitlessly surfing the Internet.”

BusyFamily covers the full spectrum of personal and family services, listing in-depth descriptions of everything from nannies and nursery schools to psychotherapists, nursing homes, retirement residences and palliative care facilities. For $18.00 for a 3-day period, subscribers have unlimited use of the database and resource centre. Clients are able to order searches and within minutes receive a customized, confidential online report about the services that best match their needs. Subscribers also have unlimited access to BusyFamily’s team of information experts as well as to informative articles and helpful checklists.

“Whether you’re looking for day care in Vancouver or a psychologist or psychiatrist specializing in marital problems in Quebec City, busyfamily.com can help. Our resources are completely bilingual and cover all of Canada,” said Dr. Frankel.

BusyFamily also comes with a proven track record –it’s the offspring of a similar resource and referral service that TakingCare Inc. has been providing since 1988 to thousands of employees in companies across Canada, including Bank of Montreal, Xerox Canada and Petro-Canada.

Central to the BusyFamily formula is a team of researchers who gather factual, complete, and unbiased information about child care, elder care, and personal care providers around the country. Each provider’s service is described in detail and information is updated continuously through telephone correspondence. Service providers do not pay any fee in order to be listed on the BusyFamily site, but must be currently licensed by the appropriate provincial licensing body.

For more information:

Dr. Mark Frankel
President
TakingCare Inc.
1-800-905-3333 or (905) 709-2485
mfrankel@busyfamily.com
www.busyfamily.com