Facts about Respite Care

  • The S.C. Respite Coalition brings people together to develop a coordinated system to address respite needs, regardless of the age of the care recipient.  Thirty states now have such coalitions. 
  • Lifespan Respite is a coordinated system of accessible, community-based respite services for caregivers and individuals regardless of age, race, ethnicity, special need, or situation.
  • The S.C. Respite Coalition inventories existing respite resources in S.C. to share widely. Our knowledge about the scope of the unmet need for across-lifespan respite services is increasing.  Respite resource information is available at www.getcaresc.org and www.archrespite.org
  • A major barrier to respite care is the lack of qualified and trained providers. We need consistent, professionally taught training classes for respite care providers in all parts of the state.   
  • Respite care has been the need most frequently identified by families of children with special health care needs.  (Plauche Johnson, et al, 2005)
  • As little as 4 hours of respite per week has been shown to make significant differences in caregiver lives.  At $10/hour, this can be as little as $2,080 a year.
  • The main sources of respite in S.C. are the South Carolina Department of Disabilities and Special Needs County Boards and Community Long Term Care, both of which have long waiting lists. 
  • 228,478 children have special health care needs (Kids Count Data Center, 2017-2018).
  • South Carolina’s aging population is growing. Current estimates (US Census, 2019) of people 65 and older are 911,322 and are expected to increase to over 1.5 million by 2035.
  • The Alzheimer’s Association-SC (AASC, 2019) indicates SC has approximately 92,000 people with Alzheimer’s Disease and estimates that by 2025, 120,000 South Carolinians will be living with Alzheimer’s.
  • Nearly 1 in 4 adults in SC identify as caregivers and an additional 1 in 6 expect to become caregivers in two years (cdc.gov/aging).
  • Caregiving touches people of all ages and family relationships. Most in SC are women (58%) and include parents, spouses, adult children (and children-in-law), siblings, and partners. Over 52,000 are grandparents raising grandchildren (ACS, 2018).
  • AARP estimates the number of South Carolinians serving as family caregivers at any given time to be 730,000. Those caregivers provide about 610 million hours of unpaid care at an estimated economic value to South Carolina of over $7.6 billion annually (Valuing the Invaluable: The Economic Value of Family Caregiving; AARP, 2019).