Administered through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau, competitive grants have been awarded to States since 1988 to assist private and public agencies in developing model respite services across the United States. Purpose Respite programs provide temporary relief for families or caregivers. Respite services can range from a few hours of care up to three months of care depending on the needs of the families and the type of respite program model available in a community. The ages served by respite programs range from infancy to adulthood. The following descriptions are examples of local respite program models.
Many families prefer respite that is provided in the home.
The child is most comfortable in the home setting and does not have to adjust to a different environment. Sometimes in-home care is coordinated by a broker, an individual who agrees to recruit, provides basic training, and keeps a database of all respite providers. Families can be matched with a provider by calling the broker and are usually responsible for child-specific training, payment, and repeat scheduling. Listed here are some of the typical models used in in-home respite. A trained and perhaps licensed employee of the agency is available to come into the home and offer respite.