Helping families get the support they need to care for their loved ones at home.
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In-Home Residential Support (Respite)
Family members caring for a child or adult with an intellectual or developmental disability can receive financial assistance for short-term relief services they receive through the St. Louis Arc’s ARCH (Assistance with Residential Care in the Home) program. The care can occur in their own home, within the community, or in the home of a respite care provider.
The qualifications for this program are as follows:
- The participant has an intellectual or developmental disability (documentation of the diagnosis is required)
- The participant lives with the primary caregiver who provides daily support
- The primary caregiver and participant reside in St. Louis County or St. Louis City
With the ARCH program, the primary caregiver hires and pays their own respite provider, reports the care to the ARCH Respite Team, and receives a set reimbursement rate for the reported care. This program allows families the freedom to select any provider they trust who is 18 or older, does not reside in the primary caregiver’s home, and is not a parent, guardian, or step-parent of the participant. We do offer a list of respite providers in the
St. Louis metropolitan area, to assist those families who do not already have a provider.
ARCH Respite families receive hours in July of each year based on the specific support needs within their household. Families have until the end of the following June to use their hours in various ways. However, respite hours cannot be used in place of other funded services such as day care, latch key services, personal care assistance, or camps and classes.
For additional information about what In-Home Residential Support (Respite) is, please watch our
Q & A about the Respite Program.
If you are interested in becoming an ARCH Respite family, our enrollment process includes:
- Completion of the Eligibility Questionnaire here. You will need to upload documentation of the disability to be considered tentatively eligible.
- Following review of the Eligibility Questionnaire and diagnosis documentation, the ARCH Respite Team will send an application through DocuSign.
- Once the application is complete, the staff will review the information and send a link to sign up for a virtual group intake training. Enrollment is official once the training is complete.
The enrollment process, from eligibility questionnaire to official enrollment, averages four (4) weeks.
If you need help with any step of this process, please reach out to us at [email protected] or call 314-817-2270.
Are you caring, patient, and interested in helping people with disabilities? Consider being a respite care provider!
Our ARCH Respite families often struggle with finding people to care for their participants when they need a break. If you are over 18, energetic, and like to help others, then being a respite care provider may be for you!
The ARCH Respite Program is for participants of all ages and abilities, so respite can look different for each provider. You may take a child to an accessible park, accompany a young adult at an amusement park, teach an adult participant how to navigate public transit systems, or be a companion to an older participant at home.
To be added to our respite provider list:
- Complete the online questionnaire or call 314-817-2270
- Upload a copy of a Family Care Safety Registry screening result dated within the last 12 months – We are requiring all respite care providers on our list to be registered with the Family Care Safety Registry (FCSR) through the Department of Health and Senior Services. For more information on the FCSR, click here.
Upon review of your questionnaire, you will receive a confirmation email welcoming you to the respite provider list. Your care preferences, availability, training, and contact information will be made available to the primary caregivers of the participants in the ARCH Program. The list is not available outside of our active respite families.
Troubleshooting
For ARCH program related questions or for additional information, please send an email to [email protected] or call (314) 817-2270.