You have been doing this a long time. Maybe you moved into your mother’s house, or you drive across town every morning, or you have simply stopped counting the nights you did not really sleep. Wanting a break does not mean you are giving up on anyone. Great Lakes Care Services provides non-medical respite care across Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties, so you can step away and know your loved one is in good hands.
Respite care is temporary, non-medical support that covers your loved one so the family caregiver can rest. A caregiver comes to the home, follows the routine that is already in place, and handles the day to day while you are away. When you come back, things pick up where they left off. Nothing about the household has to change permanently.
Most families assume respite care means handing over everything, and that assumption is exactly what keeps people from picking up the phone. It does not work that way. Respite care can be four hours on a Thursday morning. It can be one afternoon a week so you can get to your own appointments. It can be a full week while you travel for a wedding. You decide how much, and you can change it whenever you need to.
There is no threshold you have to cross before you are allowed to ask. These are the four situations we hear most often.
Overnight care is the most common reason families call. If your loved one wanders, calls out, or needs help getting to the bathroom at two in the morning, you are not resting even on the nights nothing happens. An awake caregiver overnight gives you back something you cannot function without.
A wedding, a graduation, your own surgery, a work trip you have already postponed twice. Life keeps scheduling itself around you whether or not you have coverage. Respite care fills a specific window on a specific date, and we plan it out with you well ahead of time.
Plenty of adult children have not taken a real vacation in years because every day off goes to a parent's appointments and errands. Regular respite hours change that math. A standing weekly block means you stop burning your own time off just to stay level.
The short answer is whatever you have been doing, within the limits of non-medical care.
That usually means companion care: conversation, meals, light housekeeping, errands, and simply being present so your loved one is not alone. It often includes personal care as well, meaning hands-on help with bathing, dressing, grooming, and getting safely around the house.
Our caregivers also provide medication reminders, prepare meals to the preferences you set, and keep you updated while you are away. What they do not do is provide nursing or clinical treatment. Great Lakes Care Services is a non-medical home care agency. If your loved one needs skilled care, we can work alongside the medical providers already involved, but we do not replace them.
Before any respite visit starts, your care coordinator sits down with you and writes down the routine: when your father eats, how your mother likes her coffee, which chair is hers, what upsets her and what settles her. The point of respite care is that your loved one's day stays familiar even though you are not the one running it.
Call and describe the situation. The hours you are trying to free up, the date you need covered, or just that you are worn down and not sure what to ask for. Your care coordinator will help you work out the shape of it, including how many hours actually make sense. Nothing gets decided on that call unless you want it to.
You have been carrying this, and you can keep carrying it. That is not in question. But you do not have to carry it without a break, and the people who last longest in this are the ones who accept help early rather than waiting until they cannot keep going.
Call us and tell us what your week looks like. There is no pressure and no obligation, and the assessment is free.
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