Conversations on Caregiving: Exploring Respite Care Innovations

In this third podcast in the ARCH Series, Conversations on Caregiving, educator Sharon Leary talks about a multidisciplinary, undergraduate university-based respite program serving caregiving families of adults with Alzheimer’s and other memory related conditions. Sharon illuminates the many ways students benefit and grow personally and professionally from providing respite care. By including and respecting the individual gifts every caregiver, care recipient, and student brings to the respite experience, Sharon shows how volunteer respite can result in life affirming and life changing experiences for all.

In this second podcast in the ARCH series, Conversations on Caregiving, Melissa Leisen and Christine McGrane introduce their college- and university-based pediatric respite programs in Virginia, and in Rhode Island. Melissa and Christine describe how these two programs were created, and the benefits for both caregiving families and nursing students in training. Important for workforce development, Melissa and Christine discuss training content and process, and the qualities and skills students acquire and carry forward with them in their careers after having trained in pediatric respite programs.

In this inaugural ARCH podcast in the ARCH series, Conversations on Caregiving, educator Mary Jo Alimena Caruso describes how she created a volunteer respite program for caregivers of children with disabilities. The program was notable in its ability to foster strong, caring, and lasting relationships between volunteers and families. Mary Jo offers important insights to anyone wishing to build a volunteer respite program that is measurably effective in reducing caregiver stress, and socially and emotionally supportive of both caregiving families and volunteers, resulting in lasting relationships and meaningful experiences for all.