Home Attendants assist seniors in a number of ways, ranging from personal care and hygiene, light housekeeping, shopping and cooking, to laundry and escorting. By so doing, respite care Home Attendants provide relief for caregivers and a continuum of care for the frail elderly, allowing them to remain as safely and independently as possible in their own homes.

Trained and certified Home Attendant care is provided on a short-term basis as follows:

• Basic Service: at the low rate of $7.15 per hour on weekdays and weeknights, $7.40 per hour on weekends and $9.00 per hour on holidays, plus $4 per day carfare.
• Emergency/Extended Hours of Respite Care Service: free-of-charge for frail elderly, whose primary caregivers are temporarily unavailable after 5PM, weekends, holidays and in emergencies. Preference is given to care recipients with annual incomes of $40,000 or less.

"This service is a real life saver. I am grateful to the Foundation for making this free in-home care service available at the moment my mother and I so desperately needed it. Knowing that she would be well cared for by a certified home care aide gave me the peace of mind to take care of my own pressing health needs. I couldn't have managed without it," says Steve Savinetti of Queens, New York, a full-time caregiver for his 89 year old mother, Vivian.

The program is made possible through the support of the New York State Governor's Executive Budget, New York State Legislature, New York State Office for the Aging, New York City Department for the Aging, New York City Council Members and Borough Presidents, and the generosity of private foundations and donors.