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Family caregivers provide in the U.S., but many聽need time away from that job so they can continue to care for their loved ones. Respite can provide short-term relief through several options, including a paid home care worker or providing temporary stays for patients at a residential care facility or adult day care center. Some families pick up the cost of such care out-of-pocket, but many must rely on state and community programs.

However, as states face tough budget decisions, such programs are increasingly on the chopping block.

鈥淭hese services have just come under pretty serious attack at the state level,鈥� said Jill Kagan, program director of the . 鈥淭he current economic climate that we鈥檙e in and that every state is facing has made it really difficult to expand any services at all. This comes on top of the fact that there was not enough respite for family caregivers to begin with.鈥�

States are facing the following proposed and recently enacted cuts, according聽to members of state respite coalitions and ARCH networks:

• : $76.3 million from community services for people with developmental disabilities, including defunding the University of Illinois-Chicago鈥檚 Developmental Family Clinics and a program that provides respite care for parents of children with developmental disabilities, plus trimming $56 million from group homes, day centers and employment programs.
• : More than $182,000 cut from a variety of state programs, including the Family Support Program, which funds many different services for people with disabilities, including respite care.
• Rhode Island:聽 A 25 percent cut to State Community Grants, which includes a $136,680 grant to the Catholic Diocese of Providence for a program providing respite to caregivers of the聽elderly.
• : Suspension of Alzheimer鈥檚 respite funds from the state budget.
• :聽 Proposed elimination of $2.9 million of and $3.9 million in federal matching funds for the 11 statewide Caregiver Resource Centers, which provide services including respite care, to families and caregivers of adults with聽chronic and disabling health conditions.

Many experts believe reductions could have adverse consequences as the population ages and as more senior parents struggle to care for adult children with severe disabilities. They also point out that respite is cost-effective, since it helps keep patients out of more expensive institutional care.

Respite services are often hard to find and funded from a patchwork of sources at the federal, state and local level, as well as through private foundations. In 2006, Congress authorized the Lifespan Respite Care Program, a federal program to better coordinate and expand state-funded respite services in selected states. However, it wasn鈥檛 funded until 2009 and since then has struggled with a $2.5 million annual budget.

Elizabeth Weglein, a board member of the Maryland Respite Care Coalition and the governor鈥檚 chair for the Maryland Caregivers Support Coordinating Council, described respite as a 鈥渓ynchpin to keep people at home and allow the system to work effectively.鈥� Still, she said that it鈥檚 often difficult to demonstrate its effectiveness to budget makers since respite often occurs in people鈥檚 homes.

鈥淚t can be intangible, we can have letters of thanks from the various respite recipients, but when they鈥檙e looking at hard numbers at where we should slash, it鈥檚 easy to slash a respite program,鈥� Weglein said.