What is Short Break?

Short Breaks is now the preferred term to Respite Care.

It is acknowledged that it provides a vital role in supporting disabled adults and their carers to maintain both a balanced and positive “care” environment and offer continued choice and control in accessing a mixture of shared and individual life experiences outside of the traditional home care environment and routine.

Currently our Short Break service is only provided in Somerset on behalf of Somerset County Council, however it is hoped that this will be extended to other areas of the Country.

Somerset’s Short Break Service

A4e understand how important Short Breaks can be for people with disabilities and their carers but recognise that sometimes the barriers to accessing a Short Break may appear too huge to overcome.
Short Breaks can achieve many outcomes, including:

• Overcoming severe isolation
• Providing unpaid carers respite from their carer roles
• A managed break from daily life in an environment/location of choice
• Spending time with friends/family/carers on a break while purchasing alternative care services.

Our Short Break service (subject to eligibility criteria) provides a free, tailored individual service that will work with the person to consider anything from specialist transport, accommodation and access, alternative care arrangements, equipment, financial planning and much more.

The service supports people to arrange and manage their own short break and help overcome the barriers experienced in organising it, turning dreams into reality. This means that they will have more choice about when and where they take their break and the type of break they have.