Can Veranda Ministries Overcome Statutory Limits and Expand Adult Respite Care in Tennessee?

The care of the ill in society has always been the domain of religiously motivated people and institutions in America and Tennessee. Religious institutions have frequently addressed the needs of the physically and mentally ill by providing medical care, rehabilitation, and comfort whenever state actors have been unwilling or unable to meet the needs.

The role of private actors and institutions has continued to expand even after the role of public actors has grown. Prompted by an exponential rise in Tennessee’s elderly population and evidence of a dementia-caregiver crisis in the United States, religious institutions such as Veranda Ministries—a worthy client of Gideon Law—seek to expand their role in providing limited respite care for caregivers by caring for adult patients on a limited weekly basis.

Under the current statutory guidelines, limited respite care programs provide temporary breaks—only 4 hours per day, 3 days a week—for caregivers. Veranda Ministries offers a break from continuous support for an adult who depends on caregivers for daily needs. Temporary breaks are necessary for caregivers—who are frequently family members—of vulnerable adults in communities throughout Tennessee.

Providing limited respite care service programs is essential for caregivers and elderly adults alike for several reasons. More specifically, Veranda Ministries and similar religious organizations offer the following services:

(1)          For caregivers, Veranda offers physical, emotional, and social support and encouragement through a network of caregivers throughout their community.

(2)         For elderly vulnerable adults, Veranda helps them maintain a sense of purpose, friendship, and belonging. And this is especially necessary since dementia and other debilitating health conditions do not remove the need for social interaction and a sense of community.

Many caregivers are family members, and thus respite care programs give them much-needed time to take care of themselves—get a haircut, go to the doctor’s office, exercise, or take a nap.

Despite their unquestioned value to the community and to the state, highly valuable respite care service programs face several crippling challenges. Challenges include the fact that:

(A)        Currently, under Tennessee law (Tenn. Code Ann. Section 71-2-402), respite care programs are restricted in the number of elderly adults they can serve. They are limited to serving no more than 15 adults at the same time, regardless of the program’s capacity.

(B)        In addition, Tennessee law places a draconian limit on the hours programs can provide per patient. Respite care facilities are limited to providing care for no more than 12 hours per week per adult.

Similar limitations are not imposed on other important programs, such as the Mother’s Day Out program. Two questions surface: first, why should state-imposed restrictions be imposed on adult respite care programs, and secondly, what is the appropriate solution?

Virtually any observer concerned with adults and their caregivers and cognizant of the growing need for care is likely to agree that the current Tennessee statutory framework makes little sense. Indeed, this framework is inadequate given the fact that over 5.8 million people live with dementia in the United States, and, by 2060, that number is projected to skyrocket to 14 million people.

This troubling situation means that Tennessee’s statutory framework is in desperate need of amendment. Any amendment should focus on raising the limits on the number of respite hours that Veranda and other ministries can provide per week, and on the number of individuals that respite care facilities can serve per week. The urgent need to change the current statutory framework is underscored by the fact that the average dementia caregiver spends 9 hours daily providing care. Many caregivers deliver between 21 and 44 hours per week. They experience burnout, depression, and sleep disturbances.

Now more than ever, it is time to amend Tenn. Code Ann. Section 71-2-402 by dramatically increasing the hours—from 12 to 16—that respite care facilities may provide per week. Now more than ever, it is time to expand the number of adult respite care patients that ministries like Veranda Ministries can care for by raising the limit from 15 to 30, or to the facility's capacity, whichever is higher. 

Join with Gideon Law and Veranda Ministries in advancing this effort to expand adult respite care in Tennessee.