Respite care is a short, planned break for the person doing the caregiving: someone else takes over for a few hours, a night or a few days, so you can sleep, get to your own appointments or simply stop. Respite care in Calgary comes two ways, either at home with a caregiver who comes to you, or as a short stay in a respite bed in a facility.
Alberta Maple Care provides the first kind. We don’t run respite beds. Below is how each one works, how a respite stay gets arranged, and how to tell which one fits what you need right now.
In-home respite, which is what we provide
With in-home respite, the person you care for stays where they are, in their own home with their own routine, and one of our caregivers covers the time you need. It’s booked ahead and it’s short term. Some families book a few hours a week. Others book multi-day rotations.
During that time the caregiver does what you would normally do in the same window:
- Keeps them company and keeps them safe: conversation, gentle activities, and reminders of the day and time when they need them.
- Personal care that falls inside the visit, such as bathing, dressing, toileting, help moving from bed to chair, and the morning or bedtime routine.
- Simple meals and snacks, with drinks left within reach.
- Medication reminders at the right times. If a dose is missed, the caregiver lets our nurse or you know.
- Quick safety checks on the stove and doors, and a wipe of the surfaces used during care.
- A short handover note when you get back: what was done, what the caregiver noticed, and anything to keep an eye on.
A Registered Nurse reviews the care plan before care begins, so the caregiver who arrives already knows the routine and you aren’t spending your break answering texts. Each client has one main caregiver and one backup they already know, which matters with respite: the afternoon you finally take for yourself shouldn’t start with a stranger at the door.
It isn’t only senior respite care. We also provide respite for families caring for an adult with a chronic illness or disability, and for families with children. We come to homes in all four quadrants of Calgary and in Airdrie, Cochrane, Okotoks, Chestermere, Banff, Canmore and Strathmore. The full service is on our respite care page.
A respite bed, or respite stay
A respite stay works the other way round. The person you care for goes into a facility for a short period, is looked after there, and then comes home. If you’ve seen the words respite stay or respite bed, this is what they mean.
Alberta Maple Care does not provide respite beds, and we can’t book one for you. They go through public home care. Call your zone’s Home and Community Care or Continuing Care Access line. A Case Manager reviews whether your family member is eligible and books the short-term stay in a facility. Availability varies by site and by zone. That’s all in one place in our FAQ, how do we access overnight respite beds.
Assisted Living Alberta coordinates respite both ways, in a facility or at home, through home care. If your family member already has a case manager, ask them about both options in the same conversation.
How to choose between them
The biggest difference is whether your family member moves. The second is who you have to go through to get it.
| In-home respite | Respite bed | |
|---|---|---|
| Where your family member is | At home | In a facility, for a short stay |
| Who arranges it | You, directly with us. Funded hours come through CDHCI once a case manager authorizes them. | A Case Manager, through your zone’s Continuing Care Access line |
| Assessment first | Not for private hours | Yes, the Case Manager reviews eligibility |
| How much time | A few hours a week up to multi-day rotations | A short stay, depending on what’s available at the site |
If moving is hard on the person you care for, in-home respite avoids the move altogether: same bed, same kitchen, same routine. And because private respite care in Calgary with us doesn’t wait on an assessment, you can book it while you’re still looking into public options.
You don’t have to pick only one. Some families use a facility stay for a longer break and have us cover the day-to-day respite at home before and after it.
If you’re still wondering whether you need a break at all, our piece on caregiver burnout and why respite matters goes through the signs.
Overnight respite at home
Respite doesn’t have to be a daytime thing. With overnight respite, one of our caregivers is in the house through the night, so you can sleep, or be somewhere else entirely, while your family member stays in their own bed. The caregiver can be awake all night or resting on site and up when needed, whichever your family member needs. Overnight hours are billed at our overnight rate. Our overnight care guide walks through how a night goes.
If nights have become the hard part every night rather than once in a while, that’s more than respite. Our 24/7 and live-in care covers day and night, either on rotating shifts or with a live-in caregiver, and we’d talk through which model fits at the first visit.
What in-home respite costs
Respite is billed at the same published rates as all our care: $37.50 per hour in the daytime and $39 per hour overnight, within Calgary city limits. Outside the boundary, the rate is confirmed case by case before care begins. Standard visits are 3 hours, and shorter visits can be arranged. There is no package to buy and no assessment fee.
Respite hours can also be funded. When an Assisted Living Alberta case manager authorizes respite under your care plan, those hours can be delivered by a registered CDHCI provider such as Alberta Maple Care and billed directly to Alberta Blue Cross. Families often add private hours to cover more time than was authorized. That’s set out in our FAQ, is in-home respite covered through CDHCI, and the pricing page shows what you pay on funded and private hours for your own week.
How to start
- Book a free visit, or leave your number below. We reply to every enquiry within one business day.
- A nurse comes to the house for the first assessment visit. It’s free and there’s no obligation. Tell us when you need the break and what usually happens in that window.
- A Registered Nurse reviews the care plan before care begins.
- We match your family member with a main caregiver and a backup.
- We set the schedule with you, around the times you actually need off.
Most of the time respite can start the next day, and when a caregiver is free, the same day.
If a case manager has already authorized respite hours, mention it on the first call so we can plan the funded and private hours together.