Respite care for older people

Short breaks for older people are stays in a residential/nursing home to provide respite for the older person or their carer. 

The short breaks service for older people provides:    

• short breaks for carers of older people by offering the older person a brief period in a residential/nursing home
  and
• short breaks for older people whose well being would be enhanced by a brief period in residential/nursing home

A short break can be considered as a stay for one or two days, but is usually offered in blocks for up to two weeks.

Under this planned short breaks service, the maximum breaks that anyone can have is a total of eight weeks over a twelve month period where there are exceptional circumstances. A total of four weeks is the usual limit.