Caregiver Services
for New Zealand Families.
Caregiver services in Sri Lanka for New Zealand families answer a hard geographic fact. No flight from Auckland reaches Colombo without stopping, and your parents are ageing while you are the better part of a day away. BetterHands places a vetted carer in their home and writes to you after every shift, so New Zealand families are never guessing.
The furthest away
The most detailed reporting
6½ hrs
Ahead of Colombo
1,000+
Carer profiles
Vetted and reference-checked
14 Days
Placement guarantee
Or we escalate immediately
96%
First-match success
50+ matching factors
PHSRC
Registered nurses
For clinical home nursing
A smaller community, a longer distance
Why New Zealand Families Arrange Caregiver Services in Sri Lanka.
New Zealand's Sri Lankan community is close-knit and comparatively small. Most of it sits in Auckland, around Papatoetoe, Manukau and Mt Roskill, with smaller groups in Wellington and Christchurch.
Being small has an upside. Word travels, recommendations are trusted, and nobody gets away with poor service for long. It also has a cost that Australian families rarely face.
There are simply fewer relatives to fall back on. When a parent in Colombo needs help, a family in Hamilton often has nobody nearby to ring. That gap is exactly what professional caregiver services are built to close.
- Elderly care at home arranged entirely from New Zealand
- Home nursing care for diabetes, cardiac and post-stroke conditions
- A written welfare update after every shift, not only in a crisis
- One coordination team to contact, in a country where you may know nobody else
When You Cannot Simply Fly Home to Sri Lanka.
Australian families can sometimes reach Colombo in a single hop. New Zealand families never can.
Always a stopover
Every route from Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch connects through Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or an Australian city. There is no direct option to plan around.
Twenty hours, realistically
Door to door, most journeys run well past twenty hours once connections and transfers are counted. An emergency trip is a two-day commitment before you arrive.
Fewer people to call
A smaller diaspora means fewer cousins in Colombo who can check in this afternoon. Local, accountable care fills a gap that family alone cannot.
Distance changes the maths of a crisis. If your mother falls on a Tuesday morning in Colombo, a family in Melbourne might be at her bedside by Wednesday. From Christchurch, Thursday is optimistic.
Consequently the value of steady, everyday care rises. The goal shifts from responding quickly to reducing how often a crisis happens at all. Regular support catches the small decline that turns into a hospital admission.
Families in Tauranga and Wellington tell us the same thing. They did not want a carer for the emergency. They wanted one so the emergency was less likely in the first place.
The funding question, answered plainly
What New Zealand Aged Care Does Not Cover Overseas.
Home support funding
Publicly funded home support follows a needs assessment and applies to care delivered inside New Zealand. It cannot travel to a parent in Sri Lanka.
Parents who never emigrated
Most of our New Zealand families have parents who never left Sri Lanka. In that case no New Zealand entitlement exists to begin with, which simplifies the decision.
Superannuation is separate
If your parent lived in New Zealand and returned home, NZ Super portability is its own question, based on residence history. Confirm it directly rather than assuming.
Because entitlements turn on individual residence history, check your parents' position with Work and Income New Zealand rather than relying on second-hand advice. For care itself the answer is usually straightforward: it is a private arrangement, and Sri Lankan rates make daily in-home support achievable on a New Zealand income.
The widest gap we work across
How Care Works Across the New Zealand–Sri Lanka Time Difference.
Standard time
6½ hours
NZST — April to September
Daylight saving
7½ hours
NZDT — September to April
Your 9am
2:30am there
Which is why we do not call then
New Zealand is further ahead of Sri Lanka than any other country we serve. Your working morning is the middle of your parents' night. A well-meant 9am call from Auckland arrives at half past two in Colombo, and wakes the household.
For that reason carers write the welfare update at the close of the Sri Lankan shift. It reaches Auckland and Wellington during the evening, when you actually have time to read it properly rather than between meetings.
Calls work best in your early morning or late evening, which lands inside Sri Lankan office hours. Our coordination team schedules around that, so speaking to a person does not require taking a day off work.
Set up without a boarding pass
How BetterHands Supports New Zealand Families.
Five steps, all of them remote. That is deliberate, because flying over to organise care is not realistic from here.
01
Tell us what worries you
One call or WhatsApp message, scheduled for your evening. No forms, no obligation, no cost. Most families start here after a phone call that did not sit right.
02
We assess in person
Our team visits your parents at home in Sri Lanka, so you do not have to. We look at mobility, medication, the house itself, and what your mum will actually accept.
03
We match a carer
Matching runs on language, temperament, clinical need and location. You review the profile from New Zealand before anybody starts work.
04
Updates after every shift
Meals, medication, mobility and mood, written up and sent by WhatsApp. Timed to reach you in the evening rather than the small hours.
05
Wrong fit? Replaced free
Unlimited replacements under the annual membership. Assessing a match from twenty hours away is hard, so we removed the cap entirely.
Step two is where New Zealand families feel the distance most. You are asking someone you have not met to walk into your parents' house and make a judgement you would normally make yourself. That is a real leap of trust, and we treat it that way.
The assessment is therefore written up in full and sent to you before anything is arranged. It covers what we saw, what we recommend, and what we think can wait. Plenty of families read it and decide to start with fewer hours than they expected, which is a perfectly good outcome.
Resistance from parents is the other common worry. It is rarely about the care itself. Most often it is about not wanting to become a burden to a child who already lives at the other end of the world. For that reason many New Zealand families begin with companion care rather than clinical support, because company is far easier to accept than help.
Wherever you settled
Caregiver Services in Sri Lanka by New Zealand City.
The care happens in Sri Lanka. These are the New Zealand cities our families contact us from.
Auckland carries most of the community, so most enquiries begin there. South Auckland in particular, through Papatoetoe and Manukau, along with Mt Roskill and Howick further north and east.
Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton and Tauranga families are fewer and often more isolated. If you are the only Sri Lankan family on your street, arranging care in Colombo can feel like a problem nobody around you understands. It is more common than it feels.
Straight answers
What New Zealand Families Ask Before They Commit.
How much does home care in Sri Lanka cost?
A one-time annual membership covers coordination, payroll and unlimited carer replacements. Daily rates then apply by staff role, from carer through to registered nurse. Rates appear below, and the assessment is free and comes first.
Do I need to fly over to organise it?
No. Assessment, matching, approval and payment run remotely from New Zealand. Given that no direct flights exist, this matters more here than anywhere else we operate. Your parents meet the carer in person.
Who is accountable if standards slip?
BetterHands is. Carers are employed and payrolled through us, not introduced and forgotten. One team owns the placement, there is a number to ring, and the replacement guarantee has no cap.
Where the care actually happens
Island-wide coverage in Sri Lanka.
BetterHands coordinates carers from our office in Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, just outside Colombo. Placements run island-wide, including Kandy, Galle, Negombo, Matara and Jaffna.
No district loading applies. A placement two hours from the capital costs the same daily rate as one in Colombo 7. Families discharged from the National Hospital of Sri Lanka or private hospitals are transitioned home directly.
BetterHands (Pvt) Ltd
200 Narahenpita - Nawala Rd, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte 11222, Sri Lanka
+94 74 21 21 744Transparent pricing
Membership first, then simple daily rates.
One annual membership covers coordination, payroll and unlimited carer replacements. After that you pay a flat daily rate for the level of care your parents need. Fees are charged in Sri Lankan rupees.
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
- 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
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
Questions from New Zealand
Frequently Asked Questions from New Zealand Families.
Yes. BetterHands runs a free assessment with your parents in Sri Lanka, matches a carer, and sends a written welfare update after every shift. You approve the care plan and pay from New Zealand. No family member needs to travel to set the placement up.
No. New Zealand home support funding covers care delivered inside New Zealand, following a needs assessment. Care for a parent living in Sri Lanka is paid privately. If your parent once lived in New Zealand, superannuation portability is a separate question for Work and Income.
New Zealand sits about six and a half hours ahead of Sri Lanka, widening to seven and a half during daylight saving. That is the largest gap of any country we serve. Carers write the update at the end of the Sri Lankan shift, so it reaches you late evening rather than overnight.
Practically, yes. Every route from Auckland to Colombo involves at least one stop, usually through Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or an Australian city. Journeys run well past twenty hours door to door, so emergency visits are rarely quick. Reliable local care matters more, not less.
Not for arranging care. Most of our New Zealand families have parents who never left Sri Lanka, which means no New Zealand entitlement applies at all. The care is a private arrangement from the outset, and Sri Lankan rates make daily support genuinely affordable.
BetterHands places carers island-wide. There is no district travel loading, so a placement in Kandy, Galle or Jaffna costs the same daily rate as one in Colombo. Availability for a specific area is confirmed during the free assessment.
You get unlimited replacements at no additional cost under the annual membership. Judging a match from the far side of the world is genuinely hard, so the guarantee has no cap for the life of your membership. One message to the coordination team starts the process.
BetterHands nurses are registered with Sri Lanka's Private Health Services Regulatory Council. New Zealand entitlements should be confirmed with Work and Income, as individual circumstances vary.
Keep reading
Related pages for New Zealand families.
Twenty hours away should not mean in the dark.
You cannot get there quickly, and there may be nobody in Colombo to ring this afternoon. That is the position most Sri Lankan families in New Zealand are in. Caregiver services in Sri Lanka were built for exactly this distance.
A vetted carer in the house. Home nursing when the condition calls for it. A written update after every shift, arriving while your evening is still yours. One team accountable, with unlimited replacements if the match is wrong.
The assessment costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Sometimes it tells families their parents need less than they feared. Either way you stop piecing the truth together from short phone calls.
Check it yourself
Sources and further reading for New Zealand families.
Entitlements and health guidance change. These are the official sources — go to them rather than taking our word for it.
Your parents are in Sri Lanka.
We are already there.
A 15-minute call, scheduled for your evening rather than your 2am. We will 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