Caregiver burnout: straight answers
What is respite care?
Short-term care for the person you look after, from someone else, so you can rest: for an hour, a day, or longer.
Respite care is someone else looking after the person you care for, for a while, so you can rest. Cleveland Clinic describes it as a break from caregiving “for a few hours, a few days to several weeks,” and says respite care “can happen at home, in a healthcare facility or an adult care center.” The ARCH National Respite Network describes emergency respite as “short term care that may last from one hour to several weeks,” at home or away from home.
Who provides it
ARCH’s National Respite Locator lists “primarily home care agencies, assisted living, or state or community-based agencies” that provide respite. Family, friends and volunteers can step in too: a sibling taking one afternoon a week is respite.
Medicare and respite
For someone in hospice care, Medicare.gov says Medicare covers a short inpatient stay when “the hospice team determines that you need short-term inpatient or respite care services that they arrange,” and that respite care is meant to give caregivers a rest: what Medicare pays.
Finding it
How to find respite care near you, with ARCH’s locator and the Eldercare Locator.
More questions caregivers ask
- How do I find respite care near me?
- Does Medicare pay for respite care?
- What is caregiver burnout?
- All the caregiver burnout questions
From Centis, a free care notebook you talk to. None of this is medical or legal advice.
Further reading
- Caregiver Burnout (opens in a new tab), from the Cleveland Clinic
- Find a Respite Provider (opens in a new tab), from the ARCH National Respite Network
- Hospice care (opens in a new tab), from the Medicare.gov (US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)