Hospice Alliance is a non-profit organization that is a community-based provider of hospice and supportive care management for individuals at the end of their life and wrap around service for families and primary caregivers. This project examined one of Hospice Alliance’s ancillary programs - respite care, a program that provides temporary relief for caregivers, giving them a much-needed break from the demands of caretaking. Professionals make assumptions that respite care helps relieve the stressors that caregivers are experiencing; this study sought to validate or refute these assumptions, examining the impact that respite care has on the caregiver’s mental health. The research question that guided this project was: What is the impact of respite care on a caregiver’s mental health at Hospice Alliance based on observations from hospice staff? 

To answer this question, I used a mixed-method approach, starting with a literature review of prior studies with similar research questions and followed by an online interview consisting of both qualitative and quantitative questions given to Hospice Alliance staff. I used a 5-point Likert scale for the quantitative questions. For the qualitative questions, I asked staff to comment on their observations of the impact of respite care on caregivers’ mental health and stress. Also, I asked them to evaluate what they saw as challenges related to respite care. I used descriptive statistics to evaluate the quantitative data and coded the qualitative data according to themes to identify patterns. Analysis showed that, in general, staff believed respite care at Hospice Alliance to be effective at supporting caregivers' mental health and well-being but felt that communication about respite care could be improved.