Respite program gives care givers a break. Collaborative effort involves hospitals, nursing homes, and parishes

When professionals and volunteers who work with older adults in Catholic hospitals, nursing homes, social service agencies, and parishes in the Cleveland diocese decided to develop a program of home-based respite services, they did it one step at a time. They first identified the needs, defined the goals and chose the people to accomplish those goals, then raised the money--enough to fund five three-year demonstration projects. The model they established is based on these projects. It centers on the relationship among care giver, care recipient, and respite volunteer. Without respite services, care giver and care recipient are bonded in a constant relationship. With respite, the volunteer intervenes to provide "protective," or supervisory, companionship to the older adult and a break for the care giver. The goals of this model are to prevent or delay care giver exhaustion, avert or postpone the care recipient's institutionalization, and develop cost-effective services that allow incapacitated older adults to remain in the least restrictive environment and to live as normally as possible.