LifeCourse Tools for Respite

Missouri Family to Family, which is housed within Missouri’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research and Services (UCEDD) at the University of Missouri–Kansas City Institute for Human Development, in collaboration with the ARCH National Respite Network and Resource Center, developed Charting the LifeCourse Respite materials. The materials include a Respite guide book, portfolio and other tools meant to help family caregivers caring for anyone of any age or disability and those who support them create a plan to access respite services within and outside the formal services system.

The purposes are to provide:

• information on the importance of respite for the well-being of the family caregiver and all family members;

• tools for thinking about and planning for respite; and

• additional resources for finding respite in the community. 

 View and dowload the tools here:

            Charting the LifeCourse Tools for Respite 

We welcome your feedback on the Respite Tools.  Please feel free to provide feedback here! 

Training on How to Use the Tools

Webinar: An Introduction to the Charting the Lifecourse Respite Tools

The webinar is currently unavailable. We are working to restore the link and apologize for any inconvenience. 

During this webinar, Jane St. John from Missouri Family to Family  provided an overview of the LifeCourse Tools. She walked participants through the new Charting the LifeCourse Respite Guide, the Respite Portfolio, and the Integrated Supports Schedule, with guidance on how to use the tools most effectively to help you, or the families you work with, get a well-deserved break.

If you are a family caregiver of a child or adult with a disability, chronic condition or functional limitation, or a professional who works with family caregivers, this webinar will help you get the most out of using the new tools to think about and plan for respite. Formal respite services are often out of reach for many, or not always the preferred option. These tools will be especially helpful in identifying additional resources for finding informal respite in the community.

Additional guidance on how to use the Charting the LifeCourse respite materials can be found in this  Power Point Presentation of Jane St. John, Community Inclusion Specialist and Field Research Specialist for the Missouri Family to Family team at the UMKC-Institute for Human Development at the 2017 ARCH National Lifespan Conference.  Stay tuned for additional training opportunities on how to best use the tools. 

Additional resources for helping to populate your Integrated Star in the Respite Portfolio coming soon!