Families helping families: an innovative approach to the provision of respite care for families of children with complex medical needs.

Over the past thirty years, rapid advances in medical technologies have resulted in a marked increase in the numbers of children surviving with significant medical and developmental difficulties. The general trend in society away from institutional care, in conjunction with these technological advances, has resulted in the expectation that parents will provide care at home for children with significant disabilities, often in the absence of adequate social service supports. This article describes a family support project, Families Helping Families, which implemented a cost-effective, family-centered approach to the provision of respite care for children with complex medical needs. The paper presents the role of the social worker in developing and implementing the program. Barriers to more widespread implementation of the model, both in the state system and within the medical community, are also described.