Respite care: qualitative arts-based findings on the perspectives and experiences of families of children and youth with special healthcare needs residing in Manitoba, Canada

OBJECTIVES: Respite for families of children and youth with special healthcare needs (CYSHCN) is essential for sustaining a family care environment. Lacking is an understanding of families’ respite experiences who reside in Canada. We sought to understand experiences of the use of respite services by families with CYSHCN with the aim to help improve respite services. This paper reports on the qualitative arts-based findings. DESIGN: Qualitative methods including open-ended interviews combined with the arts-based methods of ecomaps and the photovoice process were used. Analysis involved delineating units of meaning from the data, clustering units of meaning to form thematic statements and extracting themes. Setting Manitoba, a western Canadian province. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-two families (including 38 parents and 13 siblings) of CYSHCN. RESULTS: We identified six themes surrounding challenges experienced by families’ in their journeys accessing, acquiring and navigating the respite care system, and sustainment of respite care for their families, leading to familial burn-out and breakdown, financial stress, unemployment and unaddressed mental health struggles. Families provided multipronged recommendations to address these challenges. CONCLUSIONS: Through the lens of Canadian families of children with a range of complex care needs, the qualitative arts-based portion of the study underscores the challenges with accessing, navigating and sustaining respite care, which has implications for CYSHCN, their clinicians and the potential for long-term costs for government and society. This study identifies the state of the current Manitoba respite care system as an issue, presenting actionable recommendations from families that can assist policymakers and clinicians in advocating for and implementing a collaborative, responsive, family-centred system of respite care.