# Respite care

In the field of healthcare, respite care is either planned care or temporary emergency healthcare that is provided to the caregiver(s) of a child patient or of an adult patient. In order to support and maintain the social health of the primary relationship between the patient and the caregiver, programs of respite care provide planned, short-term rest breaks and limited-time rest breaks for the families and the other unpaid caregivers of children and adult patients, who either are disabled or who have a cognitive loss. Respite also provides a positive experience for the patient who is receiving healthcare service.
Although a family willingly provides healthcare to their homebound loved ones, in the long term, the physical, emotional, and financial consequences for the caregiver can overwhelm the person without some emotional support. Programs of respite care provide a rest break for the family caregiver, which benefits the physical and the mental health of the caregiver. A survey by the Commonwealth Fund, indicates that sixty percent of family caregivers, aged 19 to 64 years-old, reported that their personal health was of a fair-to-poor condition, reported one or more chronic conditions of ill-health, or reported a disability, when compared with people who are not caregivers.
Respite care sustains the health and wellness of the person who is the family caregiver; avoids or delays taking the patient out of the his or her home, and reduces the likelihood of the neglect and the abuse of the patient. An outcome-based evaluation pilot study showed that the rest breaks of respite care also diminish the likelihood of a stress-induced divorce and thus sustain marriages.
Respite care or respite services are also a family support service, and in the US is a long-term services and support (LTSS) as described by the Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities in Washington, D.C. as of 2013.
Rud Turnbull (Dr. Rutherford H. Turnbull III), himself a father of a young boy and co-director of the Beach Center on Families and Disability, completed one of the first law reviews of respite and family support in the 1990-1991 University of Kansas Law Review titled: "A Policy Analysis of Family Support for Families with Members with Disabilities".
There are many organisations in the UK and worldwide that help and support with respite care.

## Models for respite care

There are various models for providing respite care.

### In-home respite

In-home care is popular for obvious reasons. The temporary caregiver comes to the patient's home and gets to know the patient in his or her normal environment. The temporary caregiver learns the family routine, where medicines are stored, and the patient is not inconvenienced by transportation and strange environments. This model may involve friends, relatives and paid professionals. In the US, depending on the state, Medicaid or Medicare may be used to help cover costs.
Respite (In-Home) Services means intermittent or regularly scheduled temporary non-medical care (which can be healthcare financed) and/or in-home supervision. In-Home Respite support typically includes:
* Assisting the family members to enable a person with developmental disabilities to stay home
* Providing appropriate care and supervision to protect that person's safety in the absence of a family member
* Relieving family members from the constantly demanding responsibility of providing care
* Attending to basic self-help needs and other activities that would ordinarily be performed by the family member

### Respite (out-of-home) services

Respite services are provided in the community at diverse sites, and by service providers which operate licensed residential facilities or bill under a category called respite.
Respite services typically are obtained from a respite vendor, by use of vouchers and/or alternative respite options. Vouchers are a means by which a family may choose their own service provider directly through a payment, coupon or other type of authorization.

### Respite and community

Respite is an early service from the 1950s in which parents sought funding from the government for payments for specialized child care, called respite provided by the parent organizations themselves. Professional models of respite developed in the 1970s included community recreation options for the adults (e.g., at Ys, neighborhood centers, run and walks) as the parents had a "respite" or break from care giving (Racino, 2000). The state of New York has over 950 service providers in intellectual disabilities alone as of the mid-2000s (Castellani, 2005).

### Group homes and respite

Many parents wished to have a designated facility to drop off their child for "respite" (e.g., weekend), which in institutional days is a role state governments played before it was recognized that the child had rights of their own. States did fund and develop community respite centers (small homes), and also designate places in group homes for respite, including innovative friends of the home in conjunction with the private, non-profit sector.

### Specialized facility

Another model uses a specialized, local facility where the care receiver may stay for a few days or a few weeks. The advantage of this model is that the specialized facility will probably have better access to emergency facilities and professional assistance if needed.

### Emergency respite

There may be the need for respite care on an emergency basis. When using "planned" emergency care, the caregiver has already identified a provider or facility to call in an emergency. Many homecare agencies, adult daycare, health centers, and residential care facilities provide emergency respite care.

### Sitter-companion services

Sitter-companion services are one of about 6 different innovative community approaches or models to respite care which were developed internationally. They are all paid services in the US, which are only available to designated "clients" of the service systems.
They are sometimes provided by local civic groups, the faith community and other community organizations. A regular sitter-companion can provide friendly respite care for a few hours, once or twice a week. Care must be taken to assure that the sitter-companion is trained in what to do if an emergency occurs while the regular care-giver is out of the home.

### Therapeutic adult daycare

Therapeutic adult daycare may provide respite care during business hours five days a week. However, in some instances, this care may also be provided 24 hours a day. Usually, these are facilities for designated clients only, and not related to family support services other than any specialized service is considered a family support to the family which desires it. However, this group is involved in also trying to reinstitutionalize children which they also term a support to the parents as do the parents involved.

## Respite care charities in the UK

The Respite Association provides short-term assistance in the funding of appropriately qualified respite care for disabled, sick, elderly or terminally ill persons, such that their regular carer can be afforded a break. Other charities with similar aims include Revitalise.org and CareForCarers. Some individual charities, such as the Alzheimer's Association, also offer respite assistance for affected members.