Respite is time off for families who are caring for children with demanding special needs. During Respite, a trained care provider attends to the needs of the child, allowing the parents time to rest, recharge, and renew their energy. 

Program history and intent: Whom do we serve? We serve families with children birth to 18 years of age (or up to 20 if still in school) who have significant developmental delays (6 months or greater) in two or more areas of development, behavioral and/or emotional special needs, or developmental disabilities including mental retardation and autism.

Receiving Respite Services is easy. The process is as follows:

1. The referral: Parents or professionals contact The Respite Program for program information and applications. The Program Director determines if the family is eligible for Respite Care after the application process is completed. Each family receives an allocation of hours for the current fiscal year.

(Concepts borrowed from Copernicus Projects, Kennedy Krieger Institute: Baltimore, MD)

1. Respect family values Children, regardless of the type or severity of their disabilities, belong with and do best with families. Accordingly, families should receive whatever support is necessary to care for their family members with disabilities at home. When working with families stay alert to the subtle ways in which you might expose and impose your own values on the family. Using a style that is comfortable for you and for the family you are with will help communicate the underlying truth of the fact that we are all people and must be treated as such to thrive in any relationship.

People First Language is a very simple concept: People are human beings first before they are people with disabilities. It is essential that you look beyond the "labeling" of the child's disability and avoid creating or reinforcing negative stereotypes. When speaking it is important to remember that a person is always a person first.

Families are eligible for Respite Services if they have a child who is birth to eighteen years of age and has documentation of significant delays (6 months or greater) in two or more areas of development, or a documented emotional and/or behavioral disability, and is not eligible for respite services (such as foster care) through another agency.

Funds allotted to families for respite equal a maximum of 192 hours per year or 48 hours per quarter. Parents and guardians may choose to use their quarterly respite evenly spaced out over the quarter or several hours in one month and very little the next. Care may be provided overnight or for periods longer than ten hours, but is paid at a maximum daily rate of 10 hours.

After completing the certification process, new providers are added to the Provider Register, and this information is distributed to families. Considerations a family may use when locating a provider may include needs of the child, type of respite requested, geographic limitations, and experience of the provider.

Guidelines for Certified Respite Providers

A successful and effective Respite Provider:

• Provides respite for at least one family.

Certified providers are independent contractors. They are not employees of any contracted Respite Services agency. As independent contractors they decide when they work, where or with whom.

What is HIPAA? In 1996, Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act, or HIPAA. In 2000, the Department of Health & Human Services issued final regulations under HIPAA establishing privacy standards for certain protected health information and final regulations became effective April 14, 2003.

Respite Care has two basic levels of service. Each of the two levels reflects the amount of care needed by a child and is determined according to the following criteria:

Each year the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, Risk Management Division makes a limited liability insurance policy available to all individuals who have completed the training curriculum and have been approved and/or certified as Respite Care Providers.