Respite care

In the field of healthcare, respite care is either planned care or temporary emergency healthcare that is provided to the caregiver(s) of a child patient or of an adult patient. In order to support and maintain the social health of the primary relationship between the patient and the caregiver, programs of respite care provide planned, short-term rest breaks and limited-time rest breaks for the families and the other unpaid caregivers of children and adult patients, who either are disabled or who have a cognitive loss. Respite also provides a positive experience for the patient who is receiving healthcare service.

Although a family willingly provides healthcare to their homebound loved ones, in the long term, the physical, emotional, and financial consequences for the caregiver can overwhelm the person without some emotional support. Programs of respite care provide a rest break for the family caregiver, which benefits the physical and the mental health of the caregiver. A survey by the Commonwealth Fund, indicates that sixty percent of family caregivers, aged 19 to 64 years-old, reported that their personal health was of a fair-to-poor condition, reported one or more chronic conditions of ill-health, or reported a disability, when compared with people who are not caregivers.

Respite care sustains the health and wellness of the person who is the family caregiver; avoids or delays taking the patient out of his or her home, and reduces the likelihood of the neglect and the abuse of the patient. An outcome-based evaluation pilot study showed that the rest breaks of respite care also diminish the likelihood of a stress-induced divorce and thus sustain marriages.

Respite care or respite services are also a family support service, and in the US is a long-term services and support (LTSS) as described by the Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities in Washington, D.C. as of 2013.

Rud Turnbull (Dr. Rutherford H. Turnbull III), himself a father of a young boy and co-director of the Beach Center on Families and Disability, completed one of the first law reviews of respite and family support in the 1990-1991 University of Kansas Law Review titled: "A Policy Analysis of Family Support for Families with Members with Disabilities".

There are many organisations in the UK and worldwide that help and support with respite care.