If you are caring for an aging parent or spouse in Maryland and running on empty, respite care can give you a real break, and much of it is free or funded.

Caregiving takes a quiet toll on your own body. Federal data show that nearly 1 in 5 family caregivers reports fair or poor health, and depressive symptoms are roughly twice as common among caregivers as in the general population. Respite is not stepping away from the person you love. It is often what makes it possible to keep caring for them at home.

In Maryland, funded respite for family caregivers comes from four main places: free help through the Maryland Family Caregiver Support Program and your local Area Agency on Aging, in-home and day services through Maryland Medicaid for people who qualify, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for veterans' families, and adult day or short-term facility respite you arrange and often pay for privately. The one number that opens most of these doors is Maryland Access Point at 844-627-5465.

In This Guide

You Are Not Failing

Before the program details, one thing worth saying plainly: needing respite is not a moral failing, and it is not a sign you love the person less. The research points the other way. Caregivers who take regular breaks tend to have better health of their own, and they are often able to keep their loved one at home longer than those who try to carry it all alone.

If you are reading this in a crisis, skip to the resource card in How to Start in Maryland and call the numbers there. If you are planning ahead, the sections below run roughly from most affordable to most flexible.

The Four Types of Respite Care in Maryland

Respite takes four practical forms in Maryland, each with its own cost and funding path.

1. In-Home Respite

A paid caregiver comes to your home for a few hours, a full day, or occasionally overnight, so you can rest, run errands, or simply close a door. They handle meals, medication reminders, supervision, and light personal care.

Typical duration: 2 to 8 hours, occasionally overnight or a multi-day stay.

What it costs: Through a licensed home care agency, Maryland's private-pay rate for a non-medical caregiver runs about $6,673 a month on a 44-hour-per-week basis, per the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey. Agencies bill by the hour for shorter respite blocks, so ask each one for its hourly rate.

How it is funded: Community First Choice or the Community Options Waiver for enrolled Medicaid members, the Family Caregiver Support Program through your Area Agency on Aging, VA respite for veterans, or private pay.

2. Adult Day Services

A structured daytime program at a community center, typically several hours per weekday, with meals, activities, social contact, and often nursing oversight. In Maryland these programs are commonly called medical adult day care. For people with dementia, the structure and social contact often steady mood, sleep, and behavior while handing the family caregiver dependable weekday hours back.

Typical duration: several hours per day, multiple days per week.

What it costs: The CareScout 2025 survey puts Maryland's adult day health care median at about $30,313 a year. It is by far the most affordable structured respite option, and it is the setting the free and low-cost programs below stretch to cover most easily.

How it is funded: The Community Options Waiver covers medical day care for eligible members, and the Family Caregiver Support Program, long-term care insurance with a home and community-based rider, or private pay can cover the rest.

3. Short-Term Facility Respite

A few days to a few weeks in an assisted living, memory care, or nursing facility while you take a trip, recover from your own surgery, or simply rest. Some programs keep dedicated respite suites; others fit respite stays into open beds.

Typical duration: a few days to a few weeks.

What it costs: Assisted living in Maryland runs about $7,165 a month for long-term residency, well above the national median of about $6,200 a month. Respite stays are usually quoted as a daily rate that carries a premium over the long-stay rate and includes meals, lodging, and basic care, so ask each program directly for its respite pricing.

How it is funded: The Community Options Waiver for enrolled members, VA respite for veterans, long-term care insurance, or private pay.

4. Emergency Respite

For caregivers in crisis, whether from sudden illness, a hospitalization, or simply hitting a wall. Emergency respite is harder to arrange on short notice, but it exists. Start with Maryland Access Point at 844-627-5465, which can route you to your local Area Agency on Aging and its caregiver services. If your loved one is a veteran, call the VA Caregiver Support Line at 1-855-260-3274.

Does Maryland Medicaid Pay for Respite?

Yes, in the practical sense that matters: if your loved one qualifies for Maryland Medicaid long-term services, the state has two home and community-based programs that fund in-home help and adult day care, the kinds of support that give a family caregiver real relief.

The first is Community First Choice, a Medicaid state plan benefit. Because it is a state plan benefit rather than a capped waiver, there is no waitlist. To qualify, a person must already have full Medicaid, need a nursing-facility level of care, and live in the community. It covers personal assistance and related supports delivered at home instead of in an institution.

The second is the Community Options Waiver, also called the Home and Community-Based Options Waiver. It serves people who need a nursing-facility level of care but live at home, with monthly income up to 300 percent of the SSI benefit rate and countable assets limited to $2,000 or $2,500 depending on the eligibility category. Beyond the personal assistance that Community First Choice provides, the waiver adds assisted living, medical day care, case management, and Senior Center Plus. There is a waitlist, the Community Options Waiver Registry, which you join by calling Maryland Access Point at 844-627-5465; a person already in a nursing facility for whom Medicaid has paid for at least 30 days can apply with no wait.

Neither program lists "respite" as a separate line item the way some states do, so the honest advice is this: enroll, then ask your supports planner specifically what in-home hours and adult day care your plan authorizes, and how to use them to cover a caregiver's break.

1
Step 1

Confirm eligibility

Both programs require full Maryland Medicaid, a nursing-facility level of care, and living in the community. Maryland's asset limit for an aged, blind, or disabled applicant is $2,500 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple, and the special income standard for long-term-care Medicaid is $2,982 a month in 2026.

2
Step 2

Call Maryland Access Point at 844-627-5465

Ask to be screened for Community First Choice and the Community Options Waiver, and to join the Community Options Waiver Registry if a waiver is the right fit.

3
Step 3

Ask about the self-directed option

Under Maryland's self-directed model you may hire an adult child or another relative who is not legally responsible for the participant as the paid personal assistant, as long as that person is not the participant's guardian or authorized representative. Whether a spouse can be paid is not settled by Maryland's published regulations, and it varies by program, so ask your Supports Planner before counting on a spouse being paid. A financial management services agency handles background checks, payroll, and taxes.

4
Step 4

Ask your supports planner what covers a break

Name whether you need in-home hours, adult day care, or a short facility stay, and how often.

If you are still working out whether your loved one qualifies, the How to Apply for Maryland Medicaid guide walks through the process and the financial rules in detail.

Free and Low-Cost Respite: NFCSP and Maryland Access Point

One of Maryland's most useful respite supports does not require Medicaid at all, and many families never hear about it. It runs through the National Family Caregiver Support Program, delivered locally as the Maryland Family Caregiver Support Program.

Funded by federal Older Americans Act Title III-E dollars and administered by the Maryland Department of Aging through local Area Agencies on Aging, the program serves two groups of caregivers: adult family members age 18 and older caring for someone 60 or older, or for someone of any age with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia; and older relatives age 55 and older caring for a child under 18, or for an adult 18 to 59 with a disability. Respite care is one of the five services it funds, alongside information, help accessing services, individual counseling and support groups, caregiver training, and limited supplemental help.

Respite amounts and any per-caregiver caps are set locally by each Area Agency on Aging rather than by a single statewide number, so ask yours what it can fund this year.

If the free help is capped or the local funds for the year have run out, ask about the federal Lifespan Respite Care Program, which the Administration for Community Living funds to expand access to short-term and emergency respite, and the Eldercare Locator at 1-800-677-1116, a free federal service that connects families to local respite and Area Agency on Aging services.,

To reach the free help, call Maryland Access Point at 844-627-5465 or start online at the Maryland Department of Aging's Maryland Access Point page. The intake worker routes you to the Area Agency on Aging for your county.

VA Respite for Veteran Caregivers

If your loved one is a VA-enrolled veteran, the VA offers respite as a covered benefit along with separate caregiver support. All enrolled veterans are eligible for VA respite care if they meet the clinical criteria for the service and it is available.

Through the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers, eligible Primary Family Caregivers receive at least 30 days of respite care per year. VA respite is delivered as home respite care, where a substitute caregiver comes to the veteran's home or the veteran attends an adult day health program, or as nursing home respite care, a short stay in a VA Community Living Center or a community nursing home, available up to 30 days per calendar year. To learn more or apply, call the VA Caregiver Support Line at 1-855-260-3274.

Maryland veterans and their families can also get free, accredited help sorting out VA benefits through the Maryland Department of Veterans & Military Families, whose service program operates offices across the state and files VA pension and Aid and Attendance claims at no cost.

Dementia-Specific Respite in Maryland

If you are caring for someone with Alzheimer's or a related dementia, a few things in Maryland are worth knowing.

First, the Family Caregiver Support Program above explicitly covers caregivers of a person of any age with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia, so you do not have to wait until your loved one turns 60 to use it.

Second, if you are weighing a facility for short-term or longer respite, Maryland licenses dementia care as an Alzheimer's Special Care Unit inside an Assisted Living Program. A program must have written approval from the Maryland Department of Health before operating such a unit, and staff who provide personal care on the unit complete a minimum of six hours of advanced cognitive-impairment training. The program must give you a Special Care Unit disclosure form, describing its staffing, admission criteria, activities, and fees, before admission.

Third, for guidance and a warm handoff, the Alzheimer's Association offers a national Helpline and local support around the clock, and the federal Eldercare Locator at 1-800-677-1116 can connect you to dementia-specific respite and your Area Agency on Aging.

On the Medicare side, if your loved one's provider participates in the CMS GUIDE Model, that dementia-care model reimburses up to $2,500 a year for respite. Not every provider participates, so ask whether yours is enrolled.

What Respite Care Costs in Maryland

The private-pay figures below are CareScout's 2025 industry-survey medians for Maryland, not government rates, and the Washington-DC and Baltimore suburbs tend to run higher than rural Maryland.

Type Private-pay cost (CareScout 2025) Public funding that can help
In-home personal care About $6,673/mo (44 hr/week basis); ask for the hourly rate CFC, Community Options Waiver, NFCSP, VA
Adult day / medical day care About $30,313/year Community Options Waiver, NFCSP
Assisted living respite Daily premium over the $7,165/mo rate; ask each program Community Options Waiver, VA
Nursing or memory care respite Daily rate; ask each facility Community Options Waiver, VA
Hospice respite Bundled into hospice Medicare or Medicaid hospice benefit

The pattern is clear: adult day care is by far the most cost-efficient structured option, and the free Family Caregiver Support Program help stretches much further when paired with adult day care than with facility-based respite.

How to Start in Maryland

1
Step 1

Call Maryland Access Point at 844-627-5465

This one number routes you to your local Area Agency on Aging for free Family Caregiver Support Program respite, a Medicaid screening, and a care consultation.

2
Step 2

Ask to be screened for Community First Choice and the Community Options Waiver

if your loved one may qualify for Medicaid, and to join the waiver registry if that is the right fit.

3
Step 3

Call the VA Caregiver Support Line at 1-855-260-3274 first if your loved one is a veteran

Ask about VA respite and the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers.

4
Step 4

Call the Eldercare Locator at 1-800-677-1116

if you are not sure where to begin; it will connect you to local respite and your Area Agency on Aging.

Maryland Access Point Routes you to your local Area Agency on Aging for free Family Caregiver Support Program respite, a Medicaid screening, and a care consultation. 844-627-5465 aging.maryland.gov
VA Caregiver Support Line Respite and caregiver benefits for families of enrolled veterans. 1-855-260-3274 caregiver.va.gov
Eldercare Locator A free federal service that connects you to local respite and Area Agency on Aging services. 1-800-677-1116 eldercare.acl.gov
Your next step Call Maryland Access Point at 844-627-5465 to reach your local Area Agency on Aging and ask what respite it can fund for you this year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will Medicare pay for respite?

Generally no. Medicare does not pay for ongoing custodial respite. Its only respite coverage is short-term inpatient respite bundled into the Medicare hospice benefit, and, for some dementia patients whose provider participates in the CMS GUIDE Model, up to $2,500 a year. For everything else, respite in Maryland comes from the Family Caregiver Support Program, Medicaid, the VA, or private pay.

Do I have to be on Medicaid to get respite help?

No. The Maryland Family Caregiver Support Program funds respite through your local Area Agency on Aging, and you reach it through Maryland Access Point at 844-627-5465. Medicaid opens up additional in-home and adult day care help, but it is not a requirement for the free program.

Can I be paid to provide respite to my own family member?

Yes, in some situations. Through Maryland Medicaid's self-directed option in Community First Choice and the Community Options Waiver, an adult child or another relative who is not legally responsible for the participant can be hired and paid as the personal assistant, as long as that person is not the participant's guardian or authorized representative. A financial management services agency handles payroll and taxes.

Whether a spouse can be paid is not settled by Maryland's published regulations, and it varies by program. Under the Increased Community Services program a spouse is expressly barred from being a paid attendant (COMAR 10.09.81.13B). Confirm your own situation with your Supports Planner or the Community First Choice Program at 410-767-1739 before counting on a spouse being paid.

What does adult day care cost in Maryland?

Maryland's adult day health care median runs about $30,313 a year, per CareScout's 2025 survey, which makes it the most affordable structured respite option. The Community Options Waiver covers medical day care for eligible members, and the Family Caregiver Support Program can help with the cost for others.,

Will my parent hate adult day care?

It is the most common worry families raise, and most report being surprised after a few weeks. Adult day centers are usually warm, social, structured places with meals, activities, and, for dementia programs, cognitive engagement. For people with dementia in particular, the routine and social contact often improve mood, sleep, and behavior while giving the caregiver dependable hours back.

Learn More

CaregiverRespite Care for Family Caregivers: The 50-State GuideWhat respite care is and how to pay for it in 2026: the main types, free NFCSP grants, Medicaid and VA respite, and a link to every state guide. CaregiverCaregiver Programs in Maryland: A Complete DirectoryThe Maryland programs that support family caregivers, which ones pay you through Medicaid self-direction, how to get a respite break, and where to get help. CaregiverDementia Care in MarylandCaring for a parent with dementia in Maryland? Where to start, the respite the state and Medicare's GUIDE benefit pay for, and how Maryland Medicaid helps. Care TypesThe Cost of Senior Care in MarylandWhat senior care costs in Maryland in 2026: assisted living runs about $7,165 a month, a nursing home about $155,125 a year. See every setting and how to pay. MedicaidHow to Apply for Maryland MedicaidLearn how to apply for Maryland Medicaid through Maryland Health Connection or your local DSS. Covers spend-down, documents, timelines, and appeals. MedicaidMaryland Medicaid and Nursing Home CareHow Maryland Medicaid covers nursing home care in 2026: eligibility, the $2,500 asset limit, the spend-down, share of cost, and spousal protections.

Find personalized help mapping Maryland respite options to your family's situation at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.

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Expert eldercare guidance from Brevy's team of healthcare professionals and researchers.