By Austin Senior Advisor Care Team · October 7, 2026
Respite care exists in Austin, but nobody hands it to you. Four routes are open: a local grant, Medicaid waiver hours, hospice, and private pay. Each has a catch. Here is what each requires and what to ask.
You are allowed to take a week off
Most adult children caring for a parent in Austin do not take a vacation. They take a long weekend if a sibling flies in. Then they come home to a parent who is a little worse and a calendar that is a little fuller. If that sounds like you, the first thing to know is that the care system has a name for what you need. It is called respite care, and it is a real, plannable service, not a luxury.
The second thing to know is that nobody hands it to you. Medicare does not offer it as a general benefit. Texas Medicaid offers it only to people already enrolled in a specific program. A local grant exists, but it depends on funding. Every route has a catch, and most of the catches involve timing. So this post walks through the four routes that exist in the Austin area, what each one actually requires, and what to do if none of them fits.
A caveat before we start. No source I could find publishes a typical price for a short respite stay in an Austin assisted living or nursing facility. Prices vary by community and by how much care your parent needs, and facilities quote them one at a time. Where this post says you will have to ask, that is because no published figure exists.
Route one: the Capital Area ADRC and its respite grant
The Aging and Disability Resource Center of the Capital Area is the front door for long-term care help across ten counties, including Travis, Williamson, Hays and Bastrop. It runs on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 855-937-2372. It is part of the Area Agency on Aging of the Capital Area, run by the Capital Area Council of Governments at 6800 Burleson Road in Austin.
The ADRC lists a Lifespan Respite Grant Program that helps offset the cost of respite care for family caregivers who qualify, and only when funding is available. The care it can help pay for includes in-home care from an agency, adult day programs, community activities and camps. To qualify, you must be an unpaid family caregiver who has trouble getting respite, and the person you care for must have a disability, special need or chronic condition. You also cannot be enrolled in a competing government or nonprofit respite program or a Medicaid waiver.
That last rule matters. If your parent is already on a Medicaid waiver, this grant is not your route. The ADRC page does not state a maximum grant amount, an application deadline or how long the money lasts. Do not plan a trip around a grant you have not been approved for. Call, ask what is open this quarter, and ask in writing if you can.
The same office is also where the National Family Caregiver Support Program lives. That program funds services for caregivers through the Area Agency on Aging. Its page does not spell out eligibility or limits, so the call is the only way to find out what is on offer right now. Ask for benefits counseling at the same time. The counselor can tell you whether your parent might qualify for something that pays for more than a week of relief.
Route two: STAR+PLUS respite, if your parent is already enrolled
If your parent is on the STAR+PLUS Home and Community Based Services waiver, respite is a covered service. The Texas HHSC handbook caps it at 30 days a year, which it equates to 720 hours. That is the combined total for the service plan year, whether you use it as a few hours a week or as one long stretch.
It can be delivered in the home by a licensed provider that contracts with the health plan or by a licensed home care agency. It can also be delivered outside the home in a licensed nursing facility, a licensed personal care facility, or an HHSC-licensed adult foster care home. There is no copay for out-of-home respite, and room and board are included in the rate.
Here are the catches. The member has to live in their own home or with relatives, not in assisted living. The provider cannot be the primary caregiver or live with the member. And the handbook is blunt on one point: respite cannot be authorized after the fact. It has to be on the Individual Service Plan before the care happens. If you take a week off and then ask the plan to reimburse a neighbor, the answer is no.
The bigger problem is that getting onto the waiver is a long wait for many families. We cover that in our post on the STAR+PLUS interest list and on the Medicaid and STAR+PLUS page. If your parent is already enrolled, call the service coordinator at the health plan this week and ask how much of the 30 days is unused.
Route three: hospice respite, only if your parent is on hospice
If your parent has elected the Medicare hospice benefit, the hospice team can arrange inpatient respite care. Medicare.gov describes it as short-term care so the caregiver can rest. The patient may pay 5% of the Medicare-approved amount for inpatient respite, and that copayment is capped at the inpatient hospital deductible.
Federal rules limit each stay. Under 42 CFR 418.302, payment for inpatient respite care is subject to the requirement that it may not be provided consecutively for more than 5 days at a time. The stay must happen in an approved facility. Under 42 CFR 418.108, that means a hospice's own inpatient unit, a hospital, or a Medicare or Medicaid certified nursing facility that meets the hospice standards.
Five days is short, but for a caregiver who has been up every night for a month, it can be the difference between continuing and collapsing. If your parent is on hospice and you are running on empty, tell the hospice social worker the word respite out loud. It is a covered part of the benefit, and many families never ask. For what else changes when hospice starts, see this post on hospice in an Austin assisted living.
Outside hospice, Original Medicare does not offer respite as a standalone benefit. Do not assume a nursing facility will bill Medicare for a week while you are away. Ask directly who is paying before you drop your parent off.
Route four: private pay, in a community or at home
For most families this is the realistic route. Many Austin assisted living communities and some nursing facilities will take a short-term stay, often called a respite stay or trial stay. Whether a given community does, how many days it requires as a minimum, and what it charges are decisions each community makes. I could not find a published rate or a standard minimum for the Austin area, so treat any number you hear online as unverified until a community puts it in writing.
Ask five questions on the phone. What is the daily rate, and does it include medication management? What is the minimum number of days? Is there an assessment fee or a deposit? Who completes the nursing assessment, and when? And will your parent have a private room? Then ask to see the room they would actually get, not the model unit.
Check the license before you book. The license lookup page shows how to confirm a facility is licensed and what type. If your parent needs help to evacuate or needs staff at night, the community must be licensed Type B. Our page on license types explains the difference. A facility that advertises memory care must also hold the separate Alzheimer's certification under 26 TAC 553.27.
At home, an agency can send a caregiver for a few hours or overnight. Before hiring, read the license category. This post explains which license an agency needs for hands-on help. Price varies by agency and shift length, so get quotes from at least three.
The in-between option: adult day health
If a full week away is not possible, a recurring day can protect you almost as well. In the Austin area, AGE of Central Texas runs licensed adult day centers called Thrive Centers in Round Rock and South Austin, and it describes them as respite for family caregivers. You can reach them at 512-451-4611. Their website does not publish pricing, so ask for it on the call.
Adult day health in Texas is regulated by HHSC under the Day Activity and Health Services license. We explain how it works in our post on adult day care in Texas. A few days a week often gives a working caregiver the one thing a week away cannot: relief that repeats.
Some families combine routes. A day center three days a week, plus one planned respite stay a year around a big event. That pattern costs less than a long residential stay and keeps your parent's routine mostly intact. It also tells you something useful. If a two-night trial goes badly, you learn that before you need a permanent placement.
How to prepare your parent for a stay
A respite stay goes better with preparation. Write a one-page profile. Include daily routine, medication list, allergies, what calms your parent, what upsets them, and who to call. Send the actual pill bottles and a current medication list from the doctor. Ask the community how it handles medications that come from outside, since rules on who may give pills in assisted living are strict. This post covers who can hand your parent their pills.
Visit once before the stay, ideally at a meal. Bring your parent if they can handle it. For a parent with dementia, a surprise move is harder than a short, familiar visit first. Some communities will let your parent come for lunch before the stay starts. Ask.
Plan your own days too. Switch your phone to a daily check-in call rather than answering every alert. Decide ahead of time what counts as an emergency. Leave the contact for the nurse on duty and a clear backup person. Then actually rest. A week spent running errands you postponed is not a break.
If something goes wrong during a stay
Most short stays are uneventful. If yours is not, know who to call. For a problem at a licensed facility, such as neglect, a medication error or a rights violation, HHSC Complaint and Incident Intake takes reports at 1-800-458-9858. Adult Protective Services at 1-800-252-5400 handles abuse, neglect and exploitation in community settings such as a home with an agency caregiver.
For help from an advocate rather than an investigator, the long-term care ombudsman for Austin is run through the Capital Area Area Agency on Aging at 512-916-6054. Ombudsmen work with residents in nursing facilities and assisted living, and services are free and confidential. See our ombudsman page for what they can and cannot do.
Last, if you are exhausted and guilt is stopping you from acting, read our page on caregiver burnout. Taking a break is not abandoning your parent. A caregiver who has not slept cannot catch a falling pill schedule, a new rash or a missed doctor visit. The break is part of the care plan.
