Respite care: lessons from a controlled design study.

Findings are reported from a study of respite services in which an experimental design was used to assess the impact of respite on families caring for elderly persons. Almost one-third of the 189 families eligible for respite services offered through Medicare waivers failed to use any services. The majority of families chose respite services in their home for frequent periods of 3 hours. Families spent, on average, only 63 percent of their allotted funds. Respite services appeared to delay nursing home placement among families with adult children as caregivers but encouraged placement when spouses were the primary caregivers.