Resources · Erie, CO

Respite care for family caregivers in Erie, CO

On the Weld half of Erie, the county helps pay for a caregiver's break. The Family Caregiver Support program at the Weld Area Agency on Aging carries respite vouchers - for anyone caring for a frail spouse past 60 or a person living with Alzheimer's - released after a worker completes an in-home assessment, and the line is (970) 400-6130. Very few Front Range towns have anything with the word respite funded on the county payroll. Erie's biggest county does.

Everything else on this page is the local scaffolding around that check: what costs nothing (the lounge, the lunch, the bus), what costs five dollars (a Thursday seat at noon), what belongs on a shared calendar (the Tuesday-evening reservation deadline), and where paid hours fit in the holes programs cannot cover - the shower at 6 a.m., the sundown at 6 p.m., the overnight that belongs to no agency.

The paid part, priced honestly: Colorado CareAssist is family-owned and non-medical, its caregivers dementia-trained. Time off arrives by the three-hour block, billed at the Erie rate of $43; when the need is larger, live-in takes over at $650 per day, flat, and the paperwork releases whenever the household does. The conversation before any of it costs nothing - the free 20-minute call at (303) 757-1777, a real person, then a free assessment at the kitchen table or by video.

Where the breaks actually live

Take the word out and a break is any window where the person you love is safe and occupied somewhere else. Erie's public windows: the Columbine Lounge inside the Erie Community Center at 450 Powers Street, free to anyone 60 and over every weekday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with coffee at 8:30, canasta on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, mahjongg and bridge and evening euchre on Tuesday, crafts Thursday, painting the first and third Fridays. The Friendly Fork hot lunch wraps around that at noon each Thursday, social hour opening at 11, seats reserved no later than Tuesday evening at 303-926-2569.

None of that is formally labeled respite. All of it is exactly respite: defined hours, in a building, with people who would notice if the regular stopped coming.

Weld pays, Boulder counsels

The voucher is worth reading closely before anything else. On the Weld side it can fund relief inside the home, at an adult day program, or in a long-term-care bed, delivered by a relative who lives elsewhere, a friend, or a licensed provider - caregiver and recipient both must live in Weld County, and the in-home assessment comes first. Two exclusions, straight from the county brochure: people served through Veterans Services or HCBS Medicaid cannot draw on this program. Call (970) 400-6130.

The Boulder half gets a different instrument: options counseling through the county's aging desk, 303-441-1617, with SHIP Medicare advice included, while Weld's wellness calendar - Aging Well workshops for older adults and the people caring for them - answers to (970) 400-6117. Every one of these is funded for a finite number of households. Place the call in the yellow week, not the collapse week.

The same-building trick

Erie's one architectural gift to the caregiver's calendar: the Alzheimer's Association support group sits in the Columbine Lounge itself, first and third Thursdays at 4 p.m., registration at 303-813-1669. A spouse can ride over at 11:30, seat the person at the Friendly Fork social hour, spend the four o'clock hour in a circle of people who know, and drive home together afterward. The trip costs the caregiving day nothing, which is the only way a habit like this survives past spring.

Copy the rhythm deliberately: Tuesday evening for the lunch booking, Thursday for lunch plus group, and the coming week's Bee ride scheduled in the same sitting of phone calls - 720-303-9511 books up to seven days out. Households that rebuild the week from scratch every morning stop doing all of it by February.

What the town itself admits

Erie sends its 60-plus residents on roughly 70 day trips along the Front Range a year, plus an extended-travel program for trips out of state, most geared to adults 21 and up and registered town-first. The fine print is the most honest sentence in the whole local stack: the driver loads and unloads walkers and wheelchairs but provides no personal assistance, and trips that miss minimum enrollment get cancelled. That paragraph draws, for free, the exact line where a paid companion hour belongs - the person wants the trip; the bus was never going to be the care.

There is money attached to the calendar too. The Recreation Scholarship Program - funded by the town together with Weld County United Way - puts up to $200 per eligible person each calendar year toward Erie Community Center programs, activities or memberships, credited straight to the registration account. Applications run January 1 to November 30, or until the pool empties, with awards expiring December 31. A family budgeting a break should know that line exists before paying retail for one.

Rides that cross the town line

The Bee owns the in-town legs: free, on-demand, doorstep pickup, booked on the app or 720-303-9511. Past the border, the town's transportation list keeps a short stack. Ride Free Lafayette, the neighboring city's free door-to-door bus, reaches the Nine Mile commercial district that sits inside Erie itself. Broomfield FlexRide North covers anyone whose trip lands within its boundaries. Via Mobility (303-444-3043) runs paratransit, travel training and mobility information - Boulder County residents also get the county's Mobility for All program behind it. RTD's paratransit arm Access-a-Ride, reservations 303-299-2960, is the disability-certified shared ride: never same-day, one to seven days' notice, and the pickup radius only stretches 3/4 mile from fixed-route service.

For the caregiver these are not transit facts. They are hours. Every errand the Bee or Access-a-Ride absorbs is one drive removed from the spouse's day, which makes them the cheapest respite written anywhere in this document.

The kitchen, the shelves, the collapse week

A break can also arrive as groceries. Safeway at 3333 Arapahoe Rd N (720-890-0959) takes Erie's orders with delivery, same-day delivery and DriveUp and Go curbside; Walgreens at 490 Erie Pkwy (303-586-8276) keeps the prescription rhythm, pharmacy shut between 1:30 and 2 daily; Coal Creek Meals on Wheels (303-665-0566) delivers into Erie from its Lafayette base; and when the refrigerator itself is the emergency, the town's 60-plus page carries the Erie Community Food Bank at 720-383-4865.

None of those errands needs the spouse in the passenger seat. Writing them down is a respite plan; doing them all personally is the reason spouses stop sleeping.

What the funded layer will not carry

Now read the list again and notice what never appears: the six o'clock wash while the body is still cooperative, the dusk hour when the person starts asking for their own mother, the overnight stretch while the spouse is working a Denver shift. Public programs cover days. They do not cover dawn, dusk, or the middle of the night - and they do not bathe anyone.

That is the paid layer, and in Erie it is arithmetic, not mystery. One morning a week - one three-hour visit - is 12 hours, roughly $516 monthly at Erie's $43. A second weekly morning totals $1,032. Monday-Wednesday-Friday comes to $1,548. A live-in for the stretch when darkness is the entire disease runs $650 per day, flat, and steps down the moment the pattern breaks - the contract releases when the season does.

Try the smallest real version before the big one: a single block, same weekday, four consecutive weeks, dropped on the day that has historically been the breaking point. By month's end you will know whether the person sleeps better after company, which caregiver the two of them actually warm to, and whether the schedule survives one snow day. Better data than any brochure, and it belongs to your family either way.

Order of operations

The sequence: call the town desk (303-926-2738) for the referral list, loan closet and Blue Envelope. Get the Bee booked while it is easy (720-303-9511). Put the Thursday lunch on the calendar (303-926-2569) and the 4 p.m. support group beside it (303-813-1669). Then the county call the address's county pays for - Weld's voucher desk at (970) 400-6130, or Boulder's counseling line at 303-441-1617.

And then buy one three-hour block on the day the week historically breaks. If that side deserves plain numbers first, the free 20-minute call exists exactly for it - (303) 757-1777, a real person. We hand over every town and county number on this page whether the household hires us or never does; most of the stack works fine for a household that pays nothing beyond the lunch.

Local resources in Erie

Erie's Older Adult Resource Program: 303-926-2738 (ask for Frances) - Information & Referral, Loan Closet, Lock Box Program and Blue Envelope Program for 60+ residents and their families. Source
The Weld County AAA Family Caregiver Support program offers respite vouchers (in-home, adult-day or long-term-care setting) for caregivers of a frail 60+ person or a person with Alzheimer's, after an in-home assessment: (970) 400-6130; Veterans Services and HCBS Medicaid recipients are not eligible. Source
The Boulder County AAA is 303-441-1617 (options counseling, SHIP); the Weld County AAA is 315 N. 11th Ave, Building C, Greeley, (970) 400-6950 - no formal charge; Weld Aging Well coordinator (970) 400-6117. Source
The Columbine Lounge (60+, free) runs at the Erie Community Center, 450 Powers St., Mon-Fri 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., with weekday coffee, canasta, mahjongg, bridge, euchre, crafts and painting; the Friendly Fork Thursday lunch: reservations by Tuesday evening at 303-926-2569, $5 suggested donation for 60+. Source
An Alzheimer's Association caregiver support group meets 1st and 3rd Thursdays at 4 p.m. in the Columbine Lounge; register 303-813-1669. Source
The Erie Bee: free on-demand microtransit, app or 720-303-9511, booked up to 7 days ahead, door pickup, rides typically under 30 minutes; DRCOG-grant-funded, managed with Via Mobility. Source
The town's adult program runs approximately 70 day trips along the Front Range each year; most are geared to 21+; the driver loads and unloads walkers and wheelchairs/scooters but provides no personal assistance; trips below minimum enrollment are cancelled and Erie residents register first. Source
Erie's Recreation Scholarship Program provides up to $200 per eligible person per calendar year toward Erie Community Center programs, activities or memberships; funded by the Town and Weld County United Way; applications January 1-November 30 or until funds are exhausted, awards expiring December 31. Source
Beyond the Bee: Ride Free Lafayette is a free door-to-door bus reaching the Nine Mile commercial district inside Erie; Broomfield FlexRide North serves anyone whose trip is in its boundaries; Via Mobility 303-444-3043; RTD Access-a-Ride 303-299-2960 (1-7 days ahead, within 3/4 mile of fixed routes); Boulder County's Mobility for All program for county residents. Source
Safeway Erie (3333 Arapahoe Rd N, 720-890-0959) offers delivery, DriveUp & Go and SNAP EBT online; Walgreens (490 Erie Pkwy, 303-586-8276) pharmacy closes daily 1:30-2; Coal Creek Meals on Wheels (303-665-0566) serves Erie; the Erie Community Food Bank is 720-383-4865. Source

Families in Erie can start with a free in-home assessment, or read about home care in Erie.