The CCC’s first priority is advocacy for long-term care upon a foundation of integrated home and community based services. One of those services is respite care…

Respite care provides support and relief for the more than 800,000 family careviers in Colorado. Which is why in 2015, the Colorado General Assembly created the Respite Care Task Force to study the supply and demand of respite services in Colorado and to make reccomendations on how to improve respite in Colorado. In seven short the months the Respite Task Force was able to identify barriers to respite services and funding and, how to increase the number of respite caregivers including culturally competent care, and providing education and outreach about the benefits of respite care for Colorado caregivers.

The Respite Care Task Force has provided seven recommendations to the General Assembly:

• Development of a comprehensive statewide training system for respite care providers
• Expansion of the Colorado Respite Coalition’s website to serve as a designated Colorado website for information about respite and respite services
• Development of a centralized community outreach and education program about respite care services in Colorado
• Consider a tax credit for full-time caregivers for caregivers’ out-of-pocket expenses
• Standardize the full coninuum of respite care options across all Medicaid waiver programs
• Streamline regulatory requirements of facility-based, short-term, overnight respite care
• Complete a return-on-investment study to demonstrate the economic impact of respite care and its benefits

The Chronic Care Collaborative is very thankful to the Respite Care Task Force members and the hard work they did to research respite in Colorado. The CCC fully supports all of the Task Force’s reccomendations and is excited to help implement the reccomendations across Colorado. To see the full report check out our Advocacy page under 2016 efforts! For more information on respite please visit our friends at the Colorado Respite Coalition.