State Innovations to Advance Respite Care – Policy Strategies Shared at the State-Federal Respite Summit

Prepared by the National Academy for State Health Policy

In February 2024, the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP), as part of its Lifespan Respite Special Projects grant from the Administration for Community Living (ACL), hosted 16 state teams and federal officials from eight agencies in Washington, D.C., for a peer-to-peer learning exchange on innovative models, strategies, and policies to increase access to high-quality respite care services. To foster cross-agency collaboration, state team membership consisted of a Medicaid official with decision-making authority, a representative of the aging/disability agency, an ACL-funded Lifespan Respite grantee, or another individual of the state’s choosing such as a respite or family caregiver coalition representative.

The states reflected a diverse geopolitical representation: Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. To align and assist with the implementation of the 2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers, federal agency representatives joined state officials to discuss federal and state efforts to improve access to high-quality respite care throughout the lifespan. This dialogue allowed federal and state participants to learn from each other about what each is doing to advance respite care and family caregiving policy, as well as identify existing and potential synergies between these efforts.

View all NASHP Respite Resources