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Respite Care
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| What is Respite Care? |
Respite care gives families temporary relief from the challenges of caring for a child with a developmental disability. Whether this relief is for a few hours, a day, a weekend or longer depends on the families needs.
Respite care aims to strengthen the family unit. The program allows families to rest, take a vacation, tend to life’s necessities, or deal with stressful situations such as illness, death or moving.
Respite care is not a luxury: it is essential for a family’s well-being. It can prevent parents from becoming so stressed and fatigued that they can no longer cope with the special needs of their child or respond to the needs of other family members.
| Why Respite Care? |
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To support children with special needs and their families. |
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To enable families to have options and choices when |
| making decisions for their children. | |
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To promote awareness and acceptance of children with special needs |
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To encourage open and equal access to all community |
| resources and services. |
This comprehensive approach provides complementary learning opportunities and focuses on the development and functional use of age appropriate skills for each child.
| Benefits to the Child with Special Needs |
Respite care gives children with special needs an opportunity to participate in a wider range of experiences that are essential for development, such as:
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On-going relationships and social interaction outside the |
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Contact with other children who model age-appropriate |
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Growing independence through new learning experiences. |
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Inclusion in community activities. |
Respite Parent Handbook Jan 2011
| Group Respite |
The Reach Group Respite program gives parents of children with special needs some much needed respite, while providing children with opportunities to build friendships, strengthen social skills, become more aware of their community and, best of all, have lots of fun!
The Group Respite program provides an environment that encourages children’s social skills, facilitates friendships, promotes positive self esteem and community awareness, and decreases the possibility of isolation. In Group Respite children will enjoy sports, games, crafts, baking, field trips and other fun activities together.
When does the program run? frien
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The program runs the first and third Saturday of each month from 9:30 to 3:00 p.m, giving families a total of 11 hours of repite. The program is staffed with6 well-trained and experienced caregivers and a program coordinator.
The children are divided into two groups depending on their age.
One group is for children 4 to 12 years and another group is for children 12 to 19 years.
Group respite Parent Handbook Jan 2011
"Restoring Balance" by Melanie Reid, Manager of the Reach Respite program and Dawn Beazley Manager of the Reach Group Respite program (South Delta Leader newspaper 2009)
To access the respite or group respite program families must have a referral from their Ministry for Child and Family Development social worker.
For more information contact Respite Care Program Coordinator Melanie Reid at 604-946-6622 ext. 305 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or Group Respite Coordinator Dawn Beazley at 604-946-6622 ext. 306 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
