Respite care for over 17 year olds

Published 25 October 2011, Posted in Northland

Autism NZ & The Parent & Family Resource Centre ask you for your feedback.

Many families of a child with a disability will be accessing out of home respite.  You may be aware this respite is divided into “under 17yr old” or “over 17yr old” categories. 

We have heard anecdotally from families that accessing quality and relatively local out of home respite for over 17yr olds can be difficult.

There is growing awareness amongst parents of the need for this respite service in order to support their young person with a disability who is likely to be living at home well into adulthood.  Some families report that respite provided outside the family home is the best option for them.  Families have told us that respite provides much needed relief for families, siblings and marriages.

Wendy Duff of Autism New Zealand (and board member of The Parent & Family Resource Centre) is driving a campaign to collect data and stories from families to support the call for more respite beds for over 17yr olds.  We would appreciate your feedback on the following:

• Do you currently access out of home overnight respite for your child with a disability?  If so, what age is your child?
• Do you have out of home overnight respite arranged for your child if they are nearing 17, or are you on a waiting list for such respite?
• Are you satisfied with the locality and quality of the out of home respite provided for your over 17yr old with a disability?

Parent & Family Resource Centre is planning a parents forum for November this year to address some other areas of concern that parents have regarding access to disability supports, residential care, behaviour support, education issues, etc – would you like to be involved in this forum?

If you would like to answer these questions and/or be involved in a parents group to pursue access to over 17yrs respite please email us at the Parent & Family Resource Centre at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or phone 09 636-0351.

We will be advertising our Parents Forum soon once we have finalised planning.  We look forward to seeing you in November.