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CDD to discuss respite service today
The Council on Developmental Disabilities will either ratify or disapprove a planned launch of the Commonwealth Respite Service Program during a board meeting today, Aug. 29.
The board will meet at the Pacific Islands Club’s Napu Room to discuss the proposed respite system and other measures for furthering disability programs in the CNMI.
The respite program was tabled for further discussion at the May 13 CDD board meeting.
Respite care is temporary relief for primary caregivers to prevent individual and family breakdown, institutionalization of the person being cared for, or abuse by the primary caregiver as a result of stress from giving continuous support and care to a dependent person.
Ayuda had been chosen as CDD’s community-based organization to implement and facilitate a program to provide a comprehensive and coordinated respite care services for qualified clients in the CNMI. For the program to move forward, though, CDD and Ayuda Network, Inc. has to ink a memorandum of agreement but this has also been tabled.
CDD chair Thomas Camacho said in an earlier interview that the respite program already has its rules and regulations and all they’re waiting for is its implementation and accompanying voucher system.
Camacho said the program cannot be implemented without having an “outside entity”—a community-based organization—to do it.
“The CDD cannot provide these services because it conflicts with CDD’s purpose, which is an assistance advocate,” Camacho told Saipan Tribune.
The cost to set up the program for its first year would be $53,102.
Earlier in May, CDD said it had wanted to work with the Office on Aging since it already has a respite service program for the man’amko.
