Respite Care Program

The Respite Care Program provides temporary relief to caregivers of frail elderly individuals over age 60 who reside throughout New York City and are not Medicaid eligible.

Complete Intake Form

NYFSC social workers visit seniors and their caregivers to assess the need for short-term in-home care.  Once identified, a trained and Certified Home Health Aide is carefully screened, selected and assigned to provide personal care and hygiene, light housekeeping, shopping and cooking, laundry, escorting and companionship.  While ensuring that the frail elderly receive consistent care that enables them to remain as safe and independent as possible in their own homes, Home Health Aides also provide much-needed breaks for caregivers. Care recipients and/or caregivers pay their Home Health Aides directly.  By so doing, respite care Home Health Aides provide relief for caregivers and a continuum of care for the frail elderly, allowing them to remain as safely and independently as possible in their own homes. The program’s professional staff coordinates respite care services for hundreds of seniors and their caregivers annually.

Trained and certified Home Health Aide care is provided on a short-term basis as follows:

• Attendant services are $17.00 on weekdays and $17.25 on weekends, plus $5.50 per day carfare, for a one person household. For a multiple person household, hourly rates are $18.00 per hour on weekdays and $18.25 per hour on weekends, plus $5.50 per day carfare. 
• Emergency/Extended Hours of Respite Care Service: free-of-charge for frail elderly, whose primary caregivers are temporarily unavailable after 5PM, weekends, holidays and in emergencies. Preference is given to care recipients with annual incomes of $40,000 or less.

“This service is a real life saver. I am grateful to NYFSC for making this free in-home service available at the moment my mother and I so desperately needed it,” says Steve from Queens, New York.

The program is made possible through the support of the New York State Governor’s Executive Budget, New York State Legislature, New York State Office for the Aging, New York City Department for the Aging, New York City Council Members and Borough Presidents, and the generosity of private foundations and donors.

To apply for the Respite Care Program:

• Complete Intake Form