Respite Care: Types, Funding & How to Find It (2026)

Respite care is a planned break that lets a family caregiver keep going, and the National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP) helps pay for it with no income test. The program runs through every state's Area Agencies on Aging, and no one can be turned away from it because of their income or for not paying a contribution or cost share.1,2

This directory walks through where respite care funding comes from, who pays, and how to reach it, then links you to the detailed guide for your state.

You are not failing by needing a break. You are protecting the person you care for.

What Is Respite Care?

Respite care is temporary care for your loved one that gives you, the family caregiver, time off to rest, travel, or spend time with other family and friends. It can last anywhere from a few hours to several weeks at a time.10 It takes four main forms:

• In-home respite: a professional comes to the home so you can leave or rest.
• Adult day programs: daytime care at an adult day care center.
• Short-term facility respite: a stay in a health care facility such as a nursing home.
• Informal respite: family, friends, or volunteers step in, and care from a friend, relative, or volunteer may cost nothing. Professional services charge by the hour or by the number of days or weeks.10

The rest of this guide is about paying for respite, starting with a source that has no income test. If you are not sure where to start, call your local Area Agency on Aging through the Eldercare Locator at 1-800-677-1116.9

Why Respite Care Matters for Family Caregivers

If you have been running on empty and wondering whether stepping away is worth arranging, start with what caregiving does to the people doing it. Federal data show caregivers fare worse than non-caregivers across most health indicators. Nearly 1 in 5 caregivers rates their own health as fair or poor. During 2021 and 2022, frequent mental distress affected 20.5 percent of caregivers, compared with 13.6 percent of people who were not caregiving, and 25.6 percent of caregivers reported depression at some point in their lives. Caregivers of a person with Alzheimer's disease or another dementia are more likely to have health problems and to be depressed than caregivers of people whose conditions do not need constant care.11 If that is your situation, our guide to dementia care at home lays out the options.

The National Institute on Aging says the ongoing demands of caregiving can strain even the most resilient person, and MedlinePlus says taking steps to prevent or relieve caregiver stress may help prevent health problems.12 Respite is not stepping away from your loved one. It is the maintenance interval that lets you keep providing care.

How Family Caregivers Get Respite Care Funded

There are five main places respite funding comes from, and the first one has no income test.

1. NFCSP Grants (No Income Test)

The National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP), authorized under Title III-E of the Older Americans Act, flows through every state's Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs). It pays for in-home respite, adult day care, caregiver training, counseling, and supplemental services, and there is no income test to qualify.2 Eligible caregivers include adults caring for someone age 60 or older, caregivers of a person of any age with Alzheimer's disease or a related disorder, and relatives age 55 or older (other than parents) caring for a child. Respite has one more condition: for a family caregiver, it is available only when the person cared for is an older individual who is frail, meaning unable to perform at least two activities of daily living without substantial help, or needing substantial supervision because a cognitive or other mental impairment leads to behavior that poses a serious health or safety hazard.1

No income test does not always mean no cost. Your agency may ask for a voluntary contribution, and a state may charge an income-based sliding-scale share for respite. It cannot charge anyone with income at or below the federal poverty line, cannot count your savings or other assets, and cannot deny the service because of income or because you did not pay.2

Here is how it works in practice. You call your Area Agency on Aging, reachable through the Eldercare Locator at 1-800-677-1116, and the agency helps you sort out what would help and arranges respite, whether that is care in your home, a day at an adult day program, or a short-term facility stay. Under the NFCSP, that respite is provided by the Area Agency on Aging or an organization it contracts with.1,9 This is the first place most families should call.

2. Medicaid Respite

If your loved one is already on Medicaid, respite may be a benefit you have not tapped. Under home and community-based services (HCBS) 1915(c) waivers, states may cover respite care, but it is not automatic: the person must need the level of care that would qualify them for services in an institutional setting, and each state caps how many people a waiver serves.3 Where a state offers self-direction, the person receiving care, or their representative, controls the budget and hires and supervises the worker, who can be a paid family member where the program allows it. The person serving as the representative cannot also be the paid worker.13

The mechanism is simple even when the paperwork is not: ask the case manager or care coordinator who manages the waiver to add respite hours to the care plan. What a waiver covers is set by each state, so check your state's guide below for the exact program. Whether a spouse or other relative can be paid for those hours depends on the state's program and the Medicaid authority behind it.3,13

3. VA Respite (for Veterans)

If you are caring for a veteran, the VA has its own respite benefit. The Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) gives an approved Primary Family Caregiver at least 30 days of respite care per year, along with a monthly stipend, caregiver training, and mental health counseling.4 That respite can include 24-hour in-home respite, and it is limited to veterans enrolled in VA health care.5 Our guide to VA respite care has more on VA's respite options.

VA's first screen for PCAFC is four requirements that must all be true of the veteran: enrollment in VA health care, a VA disability rating of 70 percent or higher, discharge from the U.S. military or a date of medical discharge, and a need for at least six months of continuous, in-person personal care. Those four are necessary but not the whole test: you and the veteran apply together, and the federal regulation adds further conditions, including that the same personal care is not already being regularly provided by another person or program. The caregiver must be at least 18 and a spouse, relative, or someone who lives full time with the veteran. Getting the benefit starts with applying to be designated the veteran's Family Caregiver.4 Call the VA Caregiver Support Line at 1-855-260-3274, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time.14

4. Adult Day Programs

Adult day health care provides supervision, engagement, and structured daytime support. The national median provider rate in CareScout's 2025 Cost of Care Survey was $95 a day, though that is a provider rate rather than what a family ends up paying.15 NFCSP-funded respite can be provided in an adult day care setting,6 and states may cover adult day health services under Medicaid HCBS waivers for people who meet the level-of-care requirement.3 Medicare's long-term care page lists adult day health care as long-term care, which Medicare doesn't pay for.16

5. Lifespan Respite Programs

Many states have also received Lifespan Respite Care Program grants, a federally funded effort to make community respite easier to find for caregivers of people of any age. Congress appropriated $10 million for the Lifespan Respite Care Program in fiscal year 2025, and since 2009 the Administration for Community Living (ACL) has funded programs in 39 states and the District of Columbia.17 If your Area Agency on Aging has a waitlist, your state's lifespan respite program or respite coalition is often the next place to look, and the ARCH National Respite Locator can point you to local providers.17

6. Where Medicare Fits

Here is one that surprises families: Medicare does not pay for long-term care, the ongoing non-medical help with bathing, dressing, and other daily activities when that is the only care a person needs, so it is not a source of regular respite hours.8 Our guide to Medicare and respite care goes deeper. Within the Medicare hospice benefit, the hospice team can arrange inpatient respite care in a Medicare-approved facility for up to 5 days at a time, and you may pay 5 percent of the Medicare-approved amount.7 One newer option is the CMS GUIDE Model, a Medicare dementia-care program that covers up to $2,625 a year in respite per eligible patient during the performance year that began July 1, 2026. CMS pays the participating provider, not the family, so it is available only when your loved one's provider takes part. To be served by GUIDE at all, a patient must be enrolled in Medicare Parts A and B with Medicare as primary payer, not be in Medicare Advantage or another Medicare health plan, not be in hospice, and not be a long-term nursing home resident. Starting in the performance year that began July 1, 2026, the patient must also live in a private residence or in a residential care community that CMS has approved as the provider's partner, and someone living in a memory care unit cannot be served. GUIDE respite then goes only to patients with moderate or severe dementia whose primary caregiver is a relative or an unpaid nonrelative, such as a friend, and not to anyone living in assisted living or another residential care community.8 If neither hospice nor GUIDE fits, look to NFCSP, Medicaid, the VA, or private pay.

How Respite Care Differs From State to State

Respite is a federal promise delivered locally, so what you can actually get shifts as you cross state lines. The NFCSP sends federal grants to every state, allotted by each state's population age 70 and older, and the respite itself is provided by your local Area Agency on Aging or an organization it contracts with.1 Medicaid respite reaches families through each state's own home and community-based services waiver, so the covered hours (and whether a family member can be paid to provide them) are a state option that varies.3,13 And since 2009 the federal Lifespan Respite Care Program has awarded grants to state agencies in 39 states and the District of Columbia, so some states have an extra respite front door that others do not.17 That is why the funded programs, waitlists, and helplines below differ from one state to the next.

Finding Respite Care by State

Learn More

Find personalized help finding and funding respite care 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.