Respite Care FAQs
What is Respite Care?
What Types of Respite are There?
Respite Care offers a range of supports to families and carers caring for people who are frail aged or have a disability. Caring for such a family member can provide a number of challenges for families and carers. Respite Care (or Respite Support) offers families a range of options to assist them in their caring role. These include a range of in-home and out-of-home options
Key Respite definitional Statements
Respite is a break from the caring role and/or a support to the caring role delivered collaboratively, flexibly, and within available resources, that is responsive to the client’s individual needs.
Respite is time limited in its occasion of service.
The respite client is both the carer(s) and the care recipient. Carers being in an unpaid capacity.
Respite can be measured as outputs by the quantity of service, and reflected as outcomes by the quality of service. Outputs can measure the occasions of service and the break from the caring role. Outcomes reflecting the quality, value, and meaning of the service intervention as defined by the individual client.
Respite packages
Families can access an annual “package” of hours or money, which they can use to purchase a range of respite options. For example, one family may want regular, weekend host family respite, whereas another family would prefer to save their package and use it to purchase support for the whole family to go on a two week holiday together. Packages are a flexible way to provide a range of respite support to families
Host Family
The chil or young person with a disability has respite in the home of a volunteer family. This respite usually occurs over a weekend. The volunteer is reimbursed for expenses.
In Home Respite
The respite is provided in the home of the client, and can be for a few hours or a few days.
Peer Support
Adolescents and adults with disabilities are supported in leisure and recreation activities. Key workers or volunteers of similar age and interests assist with small group activities or on a one-to-one basis. Activities are wide ranging, from visits to restaurants and movies to abseiling, camping, and trips interstate.
Individual Support
On a one-to-one basis this enable persons with high support needs or challenging behaviour to receive respite support. It enables users to access a range of respite experiences not previously available to them.
Vacation Care
These are day activities during school holidays. Some disability services, including respite services, provide special centres for children with disabilities and their siblings. However many are moving towards integration into vacation care programs and providing support workers to provide extra assistance for children with a disability.
Centre Residential Respite
Centre based respite generally occurs in a residential accommodation facility. Individuals can stay for short periods of time so that they and their family have a break from their everyday roles of carer and care recipient.
Emergency Respite Care
Carer Respite Centres provide short term, one-off and emergency respite for carers.
Vacation Care/ Before & After School Care
These are day activities during school holidays, or at Before&After School Care Programs. Some disability services, included respite services, provide support for children with disabilities and theri siblings. However many are moving towards integration into vacation care programs and providing support workers extra assistance for children with a disability.
Family Day Care Integration
This is respite provided through the local Family Day Care service. Commonwealth Sups money is available to increase the per hour payment for children with special needs. Respite services may offer toy library, training, home visits to facilitate the care being given. Many parents of pre-school age children with disabilities work only part time or wish to use F.D.C only for a few hours per week.
Centre Based Day Care
A facility which provides structured group activities to frail older people that helps develop, maintain, or support their capacity for independent living and social interaction. Both carers and care recipients receive a break from the usual caring role.
Long Term Supported Accomodation
Generally provided out of the family home, but innovatively could be provided in the care recipient's family home, where a service provider assumes the role of providing primary care support, to whatever degree required. This may be live-in support or drop-in support.
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