In-home respite programs provide companionship, supervision and/or assistance with activities of daily living (ADL) for mentally or physically disabled and frail elderly persons in the absence of the primary caregiver(s). To be eligible for this service, clients must require continual supervision in order to live in their own homes, or the home of a primary caregiver. A substitute caregiver must be required while a primary caregiver is in need of relief or is otherwise unavailable.

Clients should also have difficulty performing or be unable to perform activities of daily living (ADL) without assistance. Services include attendant care. In this case, the client is not bed-bound. Companionship and assistance with toileting, eating and ambulating would be provided. In the case of a client who may be bed bound, basic care is also provided. Basic care includes assistance with the activities of daily living (ADL), routine exercise regiment, and assistance with self-medication. In the case of volunteer in-home respite care, only services associated with attendant care would be provided. ADL includes personal hygiene and grooming, meal preparation and kitchen safety, homemaking and leisure pursuits.