The family caregiver is exhausted

What help exists for an exhausted family caregiver in New Orleans?

The main supports are adult day health care, in-home respite, home-delivered meals and homemaker help through the parish council on aging, and, for people who qualify, Medicaid programs that pay for personal care and caregiver breaks.

Caregiver burnout shows up as poor sleep, missed doctor visits of the caregiver's own, irritability and illness. It is also the most common reason a parent's care plan collapses. Treat the caregiver's health as part of the plan.

Can Louisiana Medicaid pay for caregiver breaks?

Yes, for people who qualify: the Community Choices Waiver includes caregiver temporary support (respite) and adult day health care, the ADHC Waiver pays for adult day health care, and LT-PCS can be approved when the primary caregiver is disabled or at least 70.

• Support coordination
• Personal assistance services
• Adult day health care
• Assistive devices and medical supplies
• Personal emergency response system
• Assistive technology (tablet)
• Environmental accessibility adaptations
• Physical, occupational and speech therapy
• Nursing and skilled maintenance therapy
• Home-delivered meals
• Monitored in-home caregiving
• Caregiver temporary support (respite)
• Transition services for people leaving a nursing home
• Financial management services for self-directed workers

Call Louisiana Options in Long-Term Care at 1-877-456-1146 to ask. The CCW's monitored in-home caregiving service can pay a principal caregiver, including a relative, for care under professional oversight.

How does adult day health care help caregivers?

Adult day health care gives a parent a supervised day with health monitoring, medication help, meals and activities, usually with transportation, so the caregiver can work, rest or run the household.

LDH's October 2026 report lists 10 licensed adult day health care centers in the six parishes, 6 of them in Orleans Parish. Louisiana's 2025 median is $22,958 a year for five days a week, about $88 a day, and Medicaid waivers can pay for eligible participants.

Is a short respite stay in assisted living possible?

Many ARCPs offer short respite stays for a set daily rate, which gives the caregiver a real break and lets the parent try a setting without committing, as long as the parent meets the ARCP's admission criteria.

Ask about the minimum stay, what is included, and whether the provider will complete the pre-residency screening Louisiana requires. A respite stay before hurricane season can double as a trial run.

When is it time to consider a move?

When the caregiver's health is suffering, when care is needed at night most nights, or when the parent's safety depends on one person who has no backup, a move to an ARCP or nursing home is often the kinder choice for both.

That decision is not a failure. Families who move a parent often find they get back the relationship that caregiving had crowded out.