Best Elderly Care Services in Sri Lanka
for Australian Families.
Every provider on this search calls itself the best, including us. So this page is not an argument that we are — it is the criteria you can actually verify from Australia, the warning signs worth knowing, and an honest account of where we fit and where we do not.
Six things you can check
Without being in the country
Start here
What “best” should actually mean.
In most markets you judge a service by using it. Elderly care in Sri Lanka arranged from Melbourne or Sydney is different — by the time you can assess quality directly, your mum has already had a stranger in her house for a month.
So “best” here cannot sensibly mean warmest phone manner or nicest website. It has to mean the provider whose claims you can independently verify before you commit, and whose structure protects you when something goes wrong rather than when everything goes right.
That reframing is genuinely useful, because it turns an impossible judgement into six checkable questions. It also happens to be a standard we are willing to be held to, which is the only reason we can write this page honestly.
Six Criteria You Can Verify from Australia.
Every one of these is answerable by email, which is itself part of the test.
Who employs the carer
This single answer separates an agency from an introduction service. If nobody employs the carer, nobody is responsible when they stop turning up, and the person left solving it is you at 6am Australian time.
How to check: Ask directly, and ask for it in writing.
Registration for clinical work
Non-clinical care does not require registration, but wound care, injections and IV therapy do. A provider blurring that line is either careless or hoping you will not ask.
How to check: Ask for the PHSRC number and check it.
Published rates
Rates revealed only after a consultation can vary by customer, and you are in no position to compare from another country. Published pricing is a structural commitment, not a marketing choice.
How to check: Look for prices on the website before you enquire.
A written assessment
Somebody should visit the house and write down what they found. A quote produced without seeing your parents is a guess, and you cannot check the guess from Melbourne.
How to check: Ask whether it is free, and whether you receive it.
The replacement policy
Judging a match from overseas is genuinely hard, and you will not always get it right first time. A capped replacement policy places that risk on you rather than on the provider.
How to check: Ask how many, at what cost, and over what period.
What gets written down
Reporting after every shift is the only way you will notice a gradual decline. A provider who reports only when something is wrong is hiding the thing you most need to see.
How to check: Ask to see a sample welfare update.
Six Warning Signs Worth Taking Seriously.
No price until you call
A consultation-first pricing model is fine domestically where you can compare locally. From Australia it removes your only means of benchmarking.
Travel supplements by district
A charge for your parents living outside Colombo is a charge for something you cannot verify, applied to a decision they made decades ago.
Vague on employment
If the answer to who employs the carer involves the word arrangement, you are looking at an introduction service with agency pricing.
Immediate availability
Somebody who can start tomorrow without an assessment has not matched anybody to anything. Speed here is a warning, not a feature.
Cash through an intermediary
No record for you, no record for them, and an unfair position for whichever relative is holding the money.
Reluctance to put things in writing
Everything above should be answerable by email. A provider who will only discuss terms by phone is avoiding a record.
None of these mean a provider is dishonest. Plenty of small, entirely decent operations run informally and look after people well. What they mean is that the arrangement depends on goodwill, and goodwill is difficult to enforce from four thousand miles away.
If your family has somebody in Sri Lanka who can genuinely supervise week to week, an informal arrangement can work perfectly well and will cost less. If nobody can, the structure matters far more than the price.
Where BetterHands Fits and Where It Does Not.
Measured against our own criteria, including the places we are not the right answer.
Where we are a good fit
- Nobody in Sri Lanka can supervise an informal arrangement
- You want written reporting rather than occasional calls
- Your parents live outside Colombo and you want one flat rate
- Clinical needs require a registered nurse
- You would rather published rates than a quote after a call
- Continuity matters more than the lowest possible price
Where we are probably not
- A trusted relative nearby can genuinely manage a private hire
- You need somebody starting tomorrow with no assessment
- The requirement is residential or dementia-specialist care
- Your parents need hospital-level clinical supervision
- Cost is the only criterion and structure is not a concern
- What is actually needed is a neighbour, not a service
The right-hand column is not modesty. Placing care that does not suit a family produces a refusal in week two, a replacement request in week three, and a household that now distrusts the whole idea. That outcome is worse for us than never taking the enquiry.
Against our own six criteria: carers are employed and payrolled by us, nurses are PHSRC-registered, rates are published on this website, the assessment is free and written, replacements are unlimited, and a welfare update is written after every shift. Those are checkable claims, and you should check them.
What Elderly Care at Home Actually Covers.
Worth being specific, because “elderly care” means different things to different providers.
Personal care
Washing, dressing, grooming and toileting support, at whatever pace suits. Usually the part parents dread most and the part a good carer makes least remarkable.
Meals and nutrition
Cooking, encouraging regular eating, and noticing when appetite drops. A parent quietly living on tea and biscuits is one of the most common early signals.
Medication support
Reminders, supervision and recording. Administration and injections require a nurse rather than a carer, which is a distinction worth confirming with any provider.
Mobility and falls
Help moving around the house, short walks, and adapting routines as steadiness changes. Prevention matters far more than response here.
Companionship
Conversation and presence, which for a widowed parent living alone is frequently the largest single deficit rather than anything physical.
Household and errands
Light tasks, laundry, and accompanying to appointments or the shops. Not a cleaning service, and worth clarifying so expectations match on both sides.
Anything clinical — wound dressing, injections, catheter or NG tube care, IV therapy — sits above this and requires a registered nurse. If a provider offers all of it at a single carer rate, that is worth asking about directly.
Why Reviews and Ratings Help Less Than You Expect.
Including ours. This is a market where the usual signals are weakest exactly where you need them most.
Home care produces very few reviews relative to the number of placements. Families do not write up a carer the way they write up a restaurant, and the ones who do are usually at one extreme or the other — delighted in the first fortnight, or angry after something went wrong.
The middle, which is where almost all care actually sits, goes unwritten. A placement that has quietly worked for three years generates no review at all, and that is precisely the outcome you are trying to buy.
Timing distorts it further. Most reviews are written early, when relief is highest and the arrangement has not yet been tested by a carer falling ill, a hospital admission, or a parent deteriorating. The things that separate providers only show up under strain, and strain rarely happens in month one.
Testimonials on a provider website — this one included — are selected by the provider. Treat them as evidence that satisfied families exist, which is worth something, rather than as a representative sample, which they are not.
What is worth more: a specific conversation with somebody who has used a provider for over a year. Ask them what happened when the carer was unwell, how long a replacement took, and whether the reporting kept arriving when nothing was going wrong. Those three answers tell you more than a page of ratings.
And if you have nobody to ask, fall back on the six criteria. They exist because structure is checkable when reputation is not, which is the position most Australian families are in when they start looking.
Published, not quoted
Membership first, then simple daily rates.
One of the six criteria on this page is whether a provider publishes its rates. These are ours. One annual membership covers coordination, payroll and unlimited carer replacements, then a flat daily rate by staff level, with no district supplements.
BetterHands Annual Membership
LKR 20,000
One-time annual registration fee
- Unlimited caregiver replacements at no additional cost if you are not satisfied
- Payroll management and caregiver administration
- Ongoing coordination and support from the BetterHands team
- Access to all services covered under the BetterHands membership
Step two — daily service rates
Duties below are what each role normally provides — your care plan is tailored during the free assessment.
Caregiver
Daily living support and companionship
LKR 4,500/day
Most families start here — a parent who is managing, but should not be alone all day.
- Friendly conversation and companionship
- Bathing and personal care assistance (if required)
- Medication reminders and general supervision
- Simple meals and refreshments
- Short walks and light activities (if appropriate)
- Day-to-day assistance and emotional support
Nursing Assistant
Personal care plus basic clinical support
LKR 6,000/day
Common where diabetes, blood pressure or early-stage dementia needs daily monitoring.
- Everything in the caregiver role
- Vital signs monitoring (BP, blood sugar, SpO₂)
- Medication reminders and administration support
- Basic wound and continence care
Professional Nurse
Complex medical and post-operative needs
LKR 9,000/day
Usually after a hospital discharge, a stroke, or where wounds and IV care are involved.
- Everything in the nursing assistant role
- PHSRC-registered clinical nursing
- Wound care, injections, and IV therapy
- Catheter, NG tube, and post-operative care
Daily rates are charged in addition to the one-time annual registration fee of LKR 20,000. The same daily rates apply to day care, night care, live-in, and hospital bystander support — no shift premiums, no travel supplements for any district. A free care assessment is provided before any commitment.
A one-way transfer for the caregiver is arranged at the start of placement.
Families we look after
Trusted with the people who raised us.
“BetterHands transformed my mother's quality of life. The caregivers are professional, compassionate, and treat her with so much dignity. Our whole family is relieved and grateful.”
Chamari W.
Colombo 07
“After my father's heart surgery at Lanka Hospitals, the nursing team from BetterHands provided exceptional post-operative care at home. They were thorough, kind, and always on time.”
Roshan & Dilini P.
Nugegoda
“My grandfather was very lonely after being discharged from hospital. His BetterHands companion has become a true friend — he is happier and more engaged than he's been in years.”
Priya N.
Kandy
Common questions
Questions About Choosing Elderly Care in Sri Lanka.
Compare on things you can verify rather than things you are told. Employment status of the carer, PHSRC registration where clinical work is involved, published rates, written assessments, and what the replacement policy actually says. Warmth on a phone call is not a comparison point.
No, and neither is the cheapest. Price in this market reflects whether the carer is employed and payrolled more than it reflects quality. The useful question is what the difference in price is actually buying, and any provider should be able to answer that plainly.
Ask for PHSRC registration numbers for nurses and verify them. Ask for the business registration. Ask to see a sample written assessment and a sample welfare update. A provider that will not share redacted examples of its own paperwork is telling you something.
A recommendation is a genuine advantage, particularly in a market you cannot inspect. Still ask the same questions — plenty of informal arrangements come recommended by people who have never had to test what happens when something goes wrong.
Typically help with washing and dressing, meals, medication reminders, mobility support, companionship and light household tasks. Clinical work such as wound care or injections requires a registered nurse and is a separate level of service.
Two to three weeks is reasonable for a considered placement. Anyone promising somebody tomorrow without an assessment is either not assessing or not matching, and both tend to show up later as a carer who does not suit.
BetterHands nurses are registered with Sri Lanka's Private Health Services Regulatory Council. Australian aged care entitlements should be confirmed with Services Australia, as individual circumstances vary.
Check it yourself
Sources and further reading for Australian families.
Entitlements and health guidance change. These are the official sources — go to them rather than taking our word for it.
Judge the structure, not the sales call.
Everyone sounds caring on the phone, and most people in this industry genuinely are. What separates providers is what happens on the day somebody does not turn up, and that is decided by structure rather than by warmth.
Ask the six questions. Ask them of us, and of whoever else you are considering. Any provider that answers all six plainly and in writing is a reasonable choice, whether or not it is this one.
And start with the free assessment regardless. It costs nothing, it tells you what your parents actually need, and it gives you a document to compare providers against rather than a feeling.
Ask us the six questions.
Then ask everyone else.
A 15-minute call, timed for your evening. We will answer all six in writing, and tell you honestly what your parents need — even if that turns out to be less than you expected.
1,000+
Caregiver profiles
96%
First-match success
Trained
Caregiver training
14
Days to placement