Respite Care Services

June 22, 2021 Jessica Kluetz

Respite care services for aging parents.

There are many families who are caring for loved ones and providing all of the necessary care for them. This might be a family member who is in hospice, or this might also just be a loved one who doesn’t have any acute illnesses but just cannot live alone.

I applaud each of you family members who are doing this for your loved one. It is not an easy task, I know. I have written previous posts about the amount of time spent caring for loved ones as they age. It is an entirely different level when that loved one lives with you, and you are the primary caregiver.

(Related blog post: Caring For Dementia Caregivers)

For those of you who are not necessarily the primary caregiver but instead have a different family member that serves as the primary caregiver, please remember to step in and help that primary caregiver out. Even if it is just for a few hours every week or so, those few hours can be a huge relief to the caregiver.

Sometimes, however, there are people who are the only caregiver available to help the loved one. It can feel overwhelming. It can be exhausting. No matter how much you love and care about someone, providing near-constant support/supervision can take everything out of a caregiver, both physically and mentally. I thought it would be a good idea to cover respite care services in this week’s post.

What are respite care services?

So just what is respite care? Respite care is a service in which someone else steps in to provide care to a loved one to allow the usual caregiver a very much-needed break from the responsibilities of caregiving.

There is a wide variety of types of respite care. It can vary in duration from a few hours to even a few weeks. It can be done in the home, a senior living community or even in some adult day care centers.

Where you live may dictate the type of respite care your loved one might be able to receive. Understandably, more urban areas tend to have more options when compared to rural areas, but in general, there are at least a couple of options available to people wherever they are.

Who pays for respite care services?

For the most part, respite care is not covered by insurance. The exception to this is respite care under hospice services. Medicare Part A may cover the majority of temporary respite care in a pre-approved facility. Some hospices also have respite care services that are covered by volunteers. I worked as a respite care volunteer throughout my first couple of years in medical school. It is worth looking into your loved one’s benefits, however, to see if even a small amount might be covered.

(Related blog post: End Of Life Care At Home)

Where do respite care services occur?

The first option is to bring a caregiver into your home. The caregiver is usually paid hourly. Many home health agencies can be contacted to arrange in home respite care. Even an advertisement could be placed online or in a newspaper to find someone to provide this service to your loved one.

(Related blog post: Taking Care Of Elderly Parents At Home)

Understandably, the cost can be steep, especially because this is usually an out-of-pocket cost. It is worth looking into local agencies to see if there are any in-home services available through government and private services. For instance, where I live in Indiana, there is a service called CICOA, which helps to provide in-home solutions for those aging in the central-Indiana area. It’s an excellent resource for many things on aging, not just respite care.

Maybe you are wanting to go out of town for a few days or weeks. I had a patient in acute inpatient rehabilitation who was going to move in with her family after competing her inpatient rehabilitation stay following a stroke. The family, however, had been planning a big family vacation for the past couple of years, and that vacation had been scheduled to begin shortly after their loved one (Mom/Grandma) was to discharge from rehabilitation. They were very much happy about having their mom move in with them, but were disappointed that they would not be able to take the much-anticipated family vacation.

After further discussion, we made the plan for Mom to still discharge back to home with them for the first couple of weeks after rehab, but then she would go to a local senior care facility for two weeks while the family went on the vacation. The family was excited to still get to go on the vacation, and Mom was also happy to know that she was not causing the family to miss out on the trip. They did have to pay out-of-pocket for this, which is not a luxury that everyone has.

Another often forgotten about respite-type service is adult day care. These services are usually Monday through Friday and are just during working hours. I have had patient families utilize this service often. Beyond it being helpful to the caregivers, it is a wonderful way to allow the loved ones themselves another avenue for socialization with people often in their same age-group. The programs usually provide social activities and meals. Some even have health and therapy services. Again, these are usually paid for as out-of-pocket costs, but some communities provide these services for lower costs pending certain financial qualifications.

(Related blog post: Mom Needs 24/7 Care…)

There are so many benefits of respite care for both the person needing the care and for the caregiver him or herself. When providing care for a loved one, it is so important to make sure you as the caregiver are taking care of yourself.

There is only so much one can give, and if you are not making sure your tank is being filled, you will burn out. Respite care is one way to allow the caregiver the time to re-energize and refill that tank.

Have you used respite care services? What type of service did you utilize? Share in the Comments section. Or reach out to me directly.