Respite Care

What is Respite      

Caring can be physically and emotionally exhausting. Taking regular breaks from caring can help to relieve the stress and exhaustion you may feel from time to time. These breaks are often called 'respite', respite care can be given by family or friends or by a respite service. It can take place at home, in the community, at a centre or in a residential care facility. Respite care can be for a short time (e.g. few hours each week) or for a longer time (e.g. overnight, weekend or few weeks).

There are two type of respite care: 

• Emergency Respite - is when the carer has a medical emergency or other emergency matters to attend and unable to provide care to the care recipient. 

• Planned Respite - is when the carer needs to take a break to go on planned holiday or planning to take regular time off from the caring role during the day or week. 

How to arrange for respite care?

1. Contact the Carer Gateway on 1800 422 737 

2. Tell the staff from Care Gateway whether you wish to access emergency respite care service or support to plan for respite care in the near future.

3. Have an Emergency Care Plan in place or develop one with the support from Carer Gateway Service Provider. For south western Sydney residents, Wellways is your local Carer Gateway Service Provider. 

Further information

The Carers NSW website has some very useful information regarding carer wellbeing, counselling and respite options.