Becoming a respite worker

What is Respite?

Respite is a periodic, short-term break to relieve a family of the responsibility of daily care of a family member with a physical and/or developmental disability. Respite creates greater opportunities for all family members to live actively and participate in community activities and allows parents/guardians time for themselves.

Tasks

• Depends on the family and the child/ interests!
• Example:
  • Staying home with the child while the parents bring their sibling to an extracurricular activity
  • Engage with the child while parents run errands
  • Help with routines
  • Bring the child to community activities
• So many possibilities!
• Up to the respite worker and the family to decide what would be the need/ best fit.

Why is this a good opportunity?

• Gain experience working with children with developmental disabilities.
• Support families in need of help.
• Work closely with families and develop meaningful relationships.
• Enhance your resume.
• Flexible schedule.
• It is a paid position.

How to Become a Respite Worker: 

If you are interested in providing short term respite for families who have a child/youth diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder or have an interest in providing longer term respite and want to know more, FIREFLY works with Wesway to get people in Northwestern Ontario registered through RespiteServices.com to be Independent Respite Workers. If this is something that interests you, please reach out to Sydney Graham, Resource Development Coordinator at Wesway at 807-625-6677 or sgraham@wesway.com. We encourage anyone interested to reach out and see if this is a good fit for you.

You can also learn more by heading to the RespiteServices.com website by clicking here.

What do you need?

• Criminal records check (Vulnerable sector) – (Preferred)
• First Aid and CPR – (Preferred)

First Aid and CPR Training

The Canadian Red Cross offers First Aid and CPR training. Their learner-centred approach promotes knowledge transfer and skill retention. Through a safe, meaningful, cooperative learning environment, we help build learners’ understanding and confidence. To view upcoming courses in your community click here – Canadian Red Cross – Find a Course.

SafeGuards Trauma Informed Training

SafeGuards builds the capacity of people and communities through trauma-informed training and practice. There are many different courses available that cover a wide-variety of topics with many offered online. To view a full schedule click here – SafeGaurds – Online Training.

Access to webinars and information sessions

FIREFLY clinicians teamed up with clinicians from the THRIVE Children’s Treatment Center in Sault-Saint Marie to make a variety of FREE webinars and short clips that will cover a variety of topics that a respite worker may find helpful.

• Videos are made by highly skilled professionals (such as Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech-Language Pathologists, Applied Behavior Analysists, Mental Health counsellors, etc.)
• Caregivers may recommend watching certain videos that will have important information relating to their child’s needs. This can enhance both caregiver and respite worker knowledge of strategies to better support the child.
• See ‘’Resources and Videos’’ below to access links to these helpful videos.

Resources and Videos:

• Decreasing Mealtime Anxiety: Routines
• Increasing Interactions with Food
• Modeling Mealtime Skills
• Positioning for Feeding
• Sensory Considerations for Mealtime
• Turn Taking
• Communication Temptations
• Visuals
• Self-Regulation and Sensory Processing
• Executive Functioning and Impulsivity
• Enhancing Participation of Children with Developmental Disabilities through Activity Adaptation
• Playing with Children with ASD – Part 1 – Solitary Play
• Playing with Children with ASD – Part 2 – Parallel or Associative Play
• Playing with Children with ASD – Part 3 – Cooperative Play
• What Respite Providers Should Know
• Legal Basics: What Families Hiring Support Workers Should Know