Home Care
Homecare companies provide a broad range of non-medical services to help you get that much-needed respite break. In addition to caring for your loved one, they can also help with shopping and errands, and even prepare meals or do laundry.
Find home care agencies in your area
.
Senior Centers
Senior Centers offer older people a safe environment where they can take part in a range of activities led by trained personnel. Some of these organizations provide respite care, telephone visitors, in-home visitors, nursing home visitors, home health aides, support groups, adult day care, and information and referrals for accessing other services available in the community. Contact the Senior Center nearest you for detailed information.
Volunteers
About 750 programs throughout the 50 states use volunteers to provide caregiving services to families when respite care is needed just for a few hours. Low income may not be a requirement for receiving services.
Programs near you can be found by accessing the Faith in Action website, www.fiavolunteers.org and clicking on "Find a Program." Caregiving programs that are part of the Faith in Action network must train their volunteers and many perform background checks before allowing volunteers to participate.
Lotsa Helping Hands, www.nfca.lotsahelpinghands.com, is a volunteer coordination service for friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors to assist loved ones in need. It's an easy-to-use, private group calendar, specifically designed for organizing helpers, allowing everyone to pitch in with meals, transportation, and other tasks necessary for life to run smoothly.
Local places of worship and town social workers are other good sources of information about local volunteer programs, as are service organizations such as Kiwanis, Rotary and Lions.
Friends
You think about them. They think about you. So consider calling on your friends for the help you may need. They care about you, and may offer to sit with your loved one while you run errands, or help out with meals.
But the best role of all for your friends is being a friend. Laugh together. Cry together. Tell about triumphs. Tell about defeats. Your friends can help keep life in perspective, and give you the emotional support and boost you need. This can be the best respite of all.
Sitter-companion services
Sitter-companion services are sometimes provided by local civic groups, the faith community and other community organizations. A regular sitter-companion can provide friendly respite care for a few hours, once or twice a week. Care must be taken to assure that the sitter-companion is trained in what to do if an emergency occurs while the regular care-giver is out of the home.