Through UCP’s Respite Services, we encourage families to renew their energy and support their overall resiliency in caring for a family member in their home who has a disability. Respite enables families to receive support in connecting and establishing meaningful relationships with qualified care providers. Through these connections, we empower parents (or other family members) to take a break from their daily care responsibilities. Additionally, our services support children and adults with disabilities by helping them build interdependent relationships outside of their own family and increase opportunities for meaningful and active engagement within their community. We offer families a unique and trusted alternative to traditional respite models where the family often must recruit and employ their own care providers. At UCP, we employ qualified staff to provide limited-term care for children and adults with developmental disabilities while honoring each family’s desire to self-direct their services to the highest degree possible.
At UCP, our mission includes a focus on encouraging people with disabilities to feel included in their community. As a result, we offer a multi-faceted respite approach which allows us to meet our main objective of caregiver relief while providing services in a variety of locations. In addition to the family’s home, respite can take place in a variety of locations such as libraries, parks, movie theaters, museums, volunteer settings, etc.
Families are not expected to single-handedly recruit and hire respite workers. Last year, we provided over 60,000 hours of respite care to more than 330 families.
We provide support and supervision of respite workers, which significantly enhances service quality. Our most recent family survey resulted in a 96% family satisfaction rating.
We employ supervisory staff that are available to respond to any concerns that families may have regarding respite services.
We utilize a variety of recruitment strategies which augment the personal networks of families. Last year, we employed more than 750 respite providers.
Our mission and philosophy include a focus on how respite providers can encourage people with disabilities to experience more community inclusion. To help achieve this vision, we encourage friendships through peer and small group respite opportunities.