Medical respite care (MRC) is defined as acute and post-acute care for people experiencing homelessness who are too ill or frail to recover from a physical illness or injury on the streets, but who are not ill enough to be in a hospital. While programs vary in size and structure, they are all grounded in the Guiding Principles for Medical Respite Care and the Standards for Medical Respite Care Programs, and share the same fundamental elements: a short-term, safe place to stay, allowing people experiencing homelessness an opportunity to rest, recover, and heal in a safe environment while accessing medical care and supportive services.
The Standards for Medical Respite Care Programs’ Standard 7 states, “Medical respite care personnel are equipped to address the needs of people experiencing homelessness. The integrity of a medical respite program rests on its ability to provide meaningful, trauma-informed, and quality services to a complex population. As such, medical respite programs have policies and procedures in place to ensure that their personnel, both direct and indirect staff, are qualified and effective in providing services to people experiencing homelessness.”
This document provides recommendations for training and resources for medical respite program staff to provide the services described in the Models for Medical Respite Care and support the Potential Skills and Staffing of Medical Respite Care needed to implement each of the Models.
