Spectrum Arch, Inc.Respite is simple in idea: someone else provides care for a while, so the family caregiver can rest, work, sleep, or take care of everything else in life. For parents caring for an adult child at home, often for decades, it isn't a luxury. It's what keeps the arrangement sustainable.
OPWDD offers several kinds of respite. They're worth knowing because they solve different problems.
The types
In-home respite happens in the family home, during the day or overnight. It's the easiest for people who find new places hard, and it's often the first kind families try.
Site-based respite takes place somewhere else: a dedicated respite site, a certified temporary bed, or a community setting the provider pays to use. Overnight site-based respite can cover a weekend away or a planned hospital stay.
Recreational respite is out in the community, with no fixed location: a movie, a ball game, a trip to the mall with staff.
Camp respite is provided at a permitted camp.
Intensive respite isn't a separate place. Any of the types above can be intensive, which is designed for people whose medical or behavioral needs would otherwise keep them from using respite at all.
Respite and Self-Direction
If your family self-directs, respite can be purchased from a provider, or delivered by staff you hire yourself. Many families put respite hours in their self-direction budget and hire someone the person already knows, which makes it much easier to actually use.
Making respite work
- Start small. A couple of hours in-home, with someone familiar, before trying an overnight.
- Write things down. Routines, food, calming strategies, and what a hard moment looks like. It helps any new person, and it's the start of a letter of intent.
- Use it before you're desperate. Respite set up during a calm period is there when a crisis comes.
Your Care Manager can tell you what respite is available near you and how to request it.
Sources: OPWDD Respite ADM (updated March 2021); OPWDD Self-Direction Guidance (March 2022).