Has anyone used county respite care?

[theplotthickens]

Thinking about using respite through the county, and wondering if any of you experienced parents have thoughts on respite?  Were the foster parents well-trained and did your family have a good experience?

Thanks!

Our objective is to better understand the struggles our child faces and to learn the skills to improve our relationship and provide a supportive environment and also improve on our own emotional responses, attitudes and effectiveness as a family leaders

[pessim-optimist]

Hello theplotthickens,

It looks like there hasn't been anyone using county respite... .We did have an experience using military respite care for our grandson (epileptic/Aspergers) - the ladies were certified, vetted and real nice.

Are you still considering doing that? If so, you might be the pioneer on this board - please let us know how that works out and if you like it - others might like to use that option too.

[Being Mindful]

I am a volunteer parent advocate and have a parent that has used it once and it was okay. My d was in a therapeutic foster care home for 7 months which did not work out at all. I know of several parents that have used respite where there is 24/7 supervision with many teens in one location. In these cases, the parents were desperate for some respite and entered it knowing that the situation was less than ideal. Picture all high-risk teenagers sharing ideas for trouble making and learning or emulating bad behaviors.

[theplotthickens]

I met the provider today.  She is a single lady with a boyfriend.  WHen asked, she evaded whether the boyfriend was in the home or not. Pardon my directness, but I got the impression that she was not very bright and that she was doing this for the money; even though it isn't much!

I would not send her to an overnight there... .not really sure I would use this option in anything other than an emergency.

[pessim-optimist]

Hm... .any other potential providers? Our SD had several options to choose from with the military respite care.