Medical Respite Care is defined as "Acute and post-acute medical care for people experiencing homelessness who are too ill or frail to recover from a physical illness or injury on the streets, but who are not ill enough to be in a hospital. These programs provide short-term residential services (often in a shelter or transitional program) coupled with support services and access to medical care."

This course acts an introduction to Medical Respite Care for those who are new to the practice. It attempts to help learners identify the key components of a medical respite care program, describe the role of Health Care for the Homeless programs in medical respite, and differentiate between the different steps of the medical respite care process.

NOTE: If you have taken the Council's Health Care for the Homeless 101 course, this course is an exact repeat of the same content and activities. We still encourage you to take this section of the course in isolation if medical respite care is of particular interest to you, but wanted to be upfront about the source of the course's content.