The Respite Care Association of Wisconsin, in collaboration with the ARCH National Respite Network and Resource Center, hosted the 2022 National Lifespan Respite Conference in Madison, WI, on September 13-15, 2022.
The theme for the conference, Reimagine Respite, was intended to be timely and inspirational. The pandemic may be ongoing, but we hopefully shared ideas on how we can imagine a more hopeful future. COVID-19 cast a harsh light on the lack of support for family caregivers. Still, it also presented opportunities to raise awareness and rethink traditional supports to ensure that they are more meaningful for family caregivers and their loved ones such as:
- How was respite care adapted during the pandemic?
- Might adaptions provide a model to Reimagine Respite post-COVID?
This conference allowed all of us with a shared environment to ‘dream’ big, ‘explore’ new ideas, and ‘create’ different ways to ‘achieve’ Respite. It also allowed us to ‘inspire’ attendees to build on what we’ve learned and ‘discover’ new ways to meet the respite needs of the nation’s more than 50 million family caregivers.