The following request is from Meghan Baskett with Easter Seals in CO and with the CO Lifespan Respite Coalition. 

We’ve mostly worked with colleges and universities around training for respite providers (i.e. a program where nursing students complete their pediatric rotation through providing care for one of our respite programs). We are interested in more training of respite workers, as well as outreach with other programs to increase the understanding of the need for caregiver support and respite. We’d like to see more students in social work, education, etc. understand the need and resources in the community and be able to refer families. Our ultimate goal is to embed the concept of caregiving into our culture, and make it part of the conversations in education. We know there are a lot of avenues we can explore with this idea, and any successful models from other coalitions would be very helpful in deciding what might work best.

Please send responses to MBaskett@eastersealscolorado.org  and cc jkagan@archrespite.org or post your response for everyone here on the Discussion Forum.