COVID-19 Case Study: YMCA of San Diego County, CA

The YMCA of San Diego County provides respite for families of children and adults with special needs to give families short-term relief from the ongoing care of their child with developmental disabilities. The in-home respite care program currently serves children as young as 2 years old through older adults in their 60s. Respite is available through in-home care provided by trained YMCA staff. All referrals for respite come from the San Diego Regional Center.1 Regional service coordinators review family needs and determine eligibility and the number of respite care hours. The respite program serves approximately 1,000 families and has 370 part-time respite providers, providing an average of 10,000 respite hours per month.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, in-home respite services were suspended on March 16th due to the statewide stay at home order. However, families were able to access out-of-home respite provided by licensed family child care homes. These services followed California child care licensing guidelines during the pandemic.