Do You Have an Emergency Respite Plan?

Who will care for your family member if you are temporarily incapacitated? Don’t wait for an emergency situation to occur to think about who will take care of your loved ones.  Finding someone to take care of your children, grandchildren, or elderly relatives on short notice takes time and information, so plan ahead.

In this article:

• 4-step process to set up a backup plan for “emergency respite” when you will need other people to provide care to your loved one when you suddenly can’t
• Examples of forms and documents you can use to make plan set-up easier
• Where you may find paid respite providers
• Where you may connect with potential unpaid respite providers in similar circumstances
• Potential financial resources to pay for emergency respite care

4 Steps to create an emergency respite plan and put it into action

Step 1) Get it down on paper:

• List the people you care for; with the hours you care for them and what care you provide (for example, monitoring medication, bathing, shopping, etc.). Note where the care is provided (they live with you, they live in their own home, etc.)
• List the people you know that are capable and willing to care for the individuals for whom you care. If the list is short, create a list of those who you think may be able to provide care.
• Recognize that if you have several people for whom you care that you may not be able to use the same caregiver for all of them. Also recognize that if you ask someone to be an emergency caregiver, that that person might expect that the agreement is reciprocal – they may expect that the people that they care for will be taken care of by you, should it be needed.
• Be aware that if you hope to use a facility, such as a nursing home, it will be extremely difficult to find space in a facility at short notice. Such organizations can’t guarantee if or when a bed will be available even with advance notice.

Forms and resources to help you make these lists:

• You can certainly just use your own outline of your loved one’s care needs and routines, and medical information, but below are several free documents designed for children’s care.
• For others, there are numerous printables or notebooks available via an internet search, including many found on Etsy and Amazon and even local drugstores!
• Try a search for “hardcopy medical information form”, “hardcopy medical information planner”, “caregiver daily record”, “senior care checklist”.
• Portable Medical Summary is for vital information to carry around with you at all times.
• Getting to Know Me is a short form that children can carry with them that also available in Spanish.
• What’s the Plan? In Case of Emergency, and Getting to Know Me A few vital documents to go into your care notebook

Step 2) Have an open and honest discussion with the people on your list:

• Are they willing to provide emergency respite if needed? 
• Are there time limitations on what they can provide?
• Are there questions they need answered before they commit? 
• Who will be the primary caregiver, who will be the backup caregivers, and who will be the main contact person and coordinator?
• You can reassure potential temporary caregivers that you’ll have complete information about the person’s care needs, medications and how to give them, medical contacts, and how you can be contacted while you are not able to do caregiving
• If there are few or no people who you can depend on for emergency respite, start researching to find if there are paid caregivers you can use, or possible unpaid caregivers with whom you don’t yet have a strong relationship
• It’s a good idea to have at least some strong possibilities for emergency respite care before you follow Step 3, discussing the plan with the person you care for

Step 3) Have a discussion with the person you care for about the emergency respite plan and the emergency caregivers

• It’s crucial that their opinions are part of your plan process, and they are comfortable with the plan so that any switch in caregiving goes as smoothly as possible.
• If you care for people who take time or repetition to process and accept change, it’s important to begin the process of why, when, who, and what so the transition to a new person or people is easier.
• When possible, the people you care for may add their request to a potential emergency caregiver to yours. They may also suggest potential caregivers you haven’t thought of!
• Realize that you may have to revisit Step 3 as you try to firm up your plan, or when the plan needs changes.

Step 4) Get the complete plan on paper and share it with your emergency caregivers and the people they will care for (as appropriate):

• Take the document you began in Step 1 with information about your loved one’s needs, healthcare, likes and dislikes, and routines.
• Add contact information for your emergency caregivers, with brief information on who will be the primary caregiver, who will be the backup caregivers, and who will be the main contact person and coordinator.
• Carry a copy of this information with you and give it to your emergency contact, along with the people who you are likely to tap as emergency respite caregivers.
• Important: Post a copy of the plan in your home, in a prominent place where first responders will find it (refrigerator in kitchen, next to a landline phone are both good places).
• If you care for people who live in their own homes, ask them if you can post it there as well, with their permission. Explain that it’s important for everyone to know who will be taking over if you need to pause in your caregiving.

Medical and other social workers and those intimately acquainted with the needs of your family can be helpful in the process if you get stuck.

Possible unpaid caregivers: Reach out for connections and relationships that may help you in an emergency.

• Often parents who have children with similar diagnoses can come to an understanding where they will take care of each other’s children in an emergency situation. One good place to find these connections is through the Parent to Parent (P2P) programs across WA State. Find contact listings in the P2P program pages at The Arc Washington State.
• If you care for a child or young adult with complex medical needs or a specific condition, you can find support groups and contact information on the website of Washington’s Family to Family Health Information Center.  You can also use the Get Help link on that site, or at PAVE, to ask about support or “affinity groups” (affinity groups are for family caregivers/parents whose loved ones have similar conditions or other things in common).
• If the person you care for has a specific medical condition, such as dementia, Parkinson’s Disease, or Traumatic Brain Injury, try an internet search for local chapters of organizations which support people with those conditions.
• Do you have a faith community (mosque, church, synagogue, temple, etc.) that might be able to put together some volunteer care?
• Are you caring for the child or children of another family member or friend? Whether or not you have official guardianship, you can reach out to the Kinship Navigators in your county or area of Washington State. These professionals can offer support and referrals to caregiving organizations and individual providers, and potential ways to afford care.

Regional and County-level programs may help to locate paid caregivers and possible financial assistance to pay them:

• For any county: type the name of the county and then .gov (example: Snohomish County.gov) to get your county’s official website.
• ADRC – Southeast Washington
• Catholic Community Services of Western Washington and Eastern Washington
• Island Volunteer Caregivers of Bainbridge Island
• Klickitat County Senior Services
• OLYCAP – Clallam and Jefferson CountiesCommunity Living Connections of Seattle & King County at 844-348-5464

General information on where to get respite (planned breaks from caregiving) across WA State: Finding Respite in Washington State.

To find paid caregivers, you can:

• search for qualified paid caregivers through the Lifespan Respite provider database of in-home care agencies
• your local Area Agency on Ageing (contact list is below) serves caregivers of seniors and people of ANY age with disabilities). Search by your county to find contact information for local services
• If you are in King County, try Carina.org to search for an agency or individual provider

State agencies to help you find paid caregivers and funding for paid care: With hundreds of different caregiving companies and nonprofits around the state, it is not possible to list them all. There are several agencies that have full listings of caregiving providers. Statewide, you can contact Community Living Connections at 855-567-0252, and Eldercare Locator at 800-677-1116.

Click here to read a list of WA State Agencies, their assigned areas, and contact information, or click on the button below to download the list.