Respite

What is Respite?

Respite is short-term, temporary care of children with emotional or behavioral challenges, with the primary purpose of offering relief to the families.

Respite is:

• The least restrictive alternative to parental child care
• Workers trained to meet the needs of the child and the family
• Safe for the child and family
• Offers a variety of settings: child's home, group site or in the community
• Provides the family with some "breathing room"

Respite is not:

• Babysitting
• For meeting all the family's child care needs
• To provide a substitute for parent involvement
• Therapy for the child or family

Some benefits of respite:

• Reduces the level of stress in families (and marriages)
• Allows siblings time for themselves and with parents
• Helps family/parents renew optimism
• May help prevent out of home placements

Respite Policy Information

The Waiting List
Once your respite referral has been received and accepted, your child will be added to the waiting list. During this time, we will call you to see what days and times would best suit your family's need for respite service. The wait time varies depending on need and worker availability.

Home Visit
When we have an opening we will call and schedule a home visit. This will allow you to meet the respite worker as well as to relay what your child can and can't do, likes and dislikes, crisis plans etc. After the home visit, the respite supervisor will call you to see if you are comfortable with the worker we have matched with your family. If you are comfortable, a respite schedule will be set up.

The Respite Worker
All respite workers have been cleared by the New York Central Registry. This means that the worker and anyone living in the worker's home has not been arrested, suspected or convicted of child abuse or neglect. The worker has also successufully completed Respite Training, Non-Violent Crisis Intervention and First Aide. If you would like details about the training, please contact the respite supervisor.

Before Each Respite
Please let the respite worker know if your child has had a difficult day or if there has been a change of medication that may effect his mood, behavior, appetite, etc. Also share any successes your child has had that day. Knowing your child's strengths helps us reinforce them.

Out of Home Respite
The parent, child and respite worker will plan respite activities. All activities will be approved by the parent. Due to budget constraints, we ask that you supply the money for any special outing you want your child to go on (i.e. amusement park, movies, etc.). The respite worker will be reimbursed for their own expenses by BDA. Occasionally we have free passes to various places. When we do, we will offer them to you. All movie choices will be approved by the parent. No child under the age of 13 will be taken to a PG13 movie. The respite worker will need parental permission to takea child 13 and older to a PG13 movie.

Reporting Back to Parent
We want respite to be a positive experience for your child and your family. It is not, therefore, our policy to report all negative behavior to the parent, but deal with it during the respite, unless there is an ongoing safety issue. Please let us know if there is a specific behavior you want reported back to you for therapeutic treatment reasons.

Concerns
If at anytime you have concerns about anything related to your respite service or if you have decided that the respite worker is not a good match for your child, contact the respite supervisor immediately.

Respite Cancellations
Please contact the respite supervisor or respite worker as soon as possible when needing to cancel a respite. Although we are aware that there are emergency situations, repeated cancellations and finding no one is home for a respite pick-up can result in termination of respite services.

Ending Respite Service
In approximately three months, the need for respite services will be evaluated. We will make every effort to give you a thirty day notice before discontinuing or modifying your services. The respite worker has been trained to help your child through the transition.