2024 Respite Research Summit Proceedings

Thank you to presenters and attendees for making the 2024 Respite Research Summit a huge success!

ARCH and the Committee for Advancement of Respite Research (CARR) hosted its capstone event in October 2024 with nearly 200 attendees from 39 U.S. States, Australia, Canada, and South Africa! The CARR is completing the next phase of the ARCH Respite Research Initiative, supported by the Administration for Community Living, to advance a respite research agenda with the goal of strengthening the evidence base for respite and shared its findings and products.

During the Summit, we explored the CARR initiatives undertaken over the last several years, including the development of a Framework for Measuring the Value of Respite, newly released Recommended Common Data Elements for Respite Research, and resources for ensuring cultural and linguistic competence in respite research. We highlighted cutting-edge national, state and local respite and caregiving research and evaluations that align with and elevate this work, and featured real-life examples of research-ready innovative and exemplary respite services from around the country.

In 2022, the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers was released by the Administration for Community Living. The National Strategy includes tens of public and private sector recommended actions to ensure that family caregivers are able to obtain respite services that meet their unique needs. The National Strategy’s goals align fully with ARCH’s research initiative and the work of the CARR.

As a result of the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers, new national initiatives that provide respite care like the Medicare GUIDE model and the Center for Dementia Respite Innovation have been launched.  Promising State and local efforts focused on respite were also newly developed or expanded.

The Respite Research Summit was devoted to highlighting these efforts and how they are being evaluated to ensure that respite care and caregiver services will be high quality and culturally competent; result in meaningful outcomes for family caregivers; be person and family-centered; respond to the diverse needs of family caregivers; and be replicable in order to reach family caregivers across the country.

ARCH extends a special thank you to the members of our Committee for Advancement of Respite Research for sharing their expertise, and for their commitment to advancing a meaningful respite research agenda.