Resources · Monument, CO

Respite care for family caregivers in Monument and the Tri-Lakes

There is no bus in the Tri-Lakes. The Pikes Peak mobility guide puts Monument and Palmer Lake in the hands of senior-service programs rather than a fixed route, which means that when the person you are caring for needs a doctor, a haircut or a grocery run, the plan has to be a plan and not a timetable. That constraint shapes everything about respite care here: what families need is not only somebody to sit with the person, but somebody who can drive them, help them stand up, and know which office to call.

The good news is that the county built the network anyway, and it is not hard to find once you have the numbers. Silver Key runs the Tri-Lakes senior center, books rides, and delivers Meals on Wheels. Envida Moves coordinates transportation across El Paso and Teller counties. Tri-Lakes Cares on North Jefferson Street handles the money side of a hard month. The Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging sits on South Chestnut Street in Colorado Springs and points families at all of it.

Colorado CareAssist fits in the middle of that network as paid hours: family-owned, non-medical, dementia-trained caregivers matched to the person and the household. Here in the Tri-Lakes the rate is $40 an hour, the shortest visit is three hours, and a live-in day comes at $650 flat. Families with long-term care insurance bring the policy to us and we work through it with them, and as a VA Community Care Network provider we handle the paperwork for veterans. Call (303) 757-1777 for a free twenty-minute conversation, then a free assessment in the home or by video, with nothing binding you.

The center that gives a caregiver a morning back

The Silver Key Tri-Lakes senior center in Monument, (719) 884-2300, keeps its doors open from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon on weekdays, and it is free to older adults in Monument, Palmer Lake and Woodmoor. Four to eight activities run most days, and a hot lunch from the Connections Cafe goes out at half past eleven and clears by half past twelve on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. About 700 people use the calendar. In 2025 the center moved into a church building in Monument, so look up the current address before you drive over.

For the family member doing the caring, that lunch window is worth more than it looks. One outing three mornings a week is the difference between a schedule that holds and one that nobody can keep. You can sit across the table at lunch instead of across the house from a person who cannot finish a sentence, and the case management that comes with the center will pick up the phone about the stair problem you have been avoiding.

Getting there, because the map is the hard part

Rides are the thing families in Monument ask about first, and the answer is layered. Silver Key's vehicles take people to appointments and to shopping, booked by calling (719) 884-2300, and the county's directory also lists Reserve and Ride, a door-through-door, wheelchair-accessible service out of the Colorado Springs base. Envida Moves, (719) 633-4677 at 5660 N Academy Boulevard in Colorado Springs, coordinates rides across El Paso and Teller counties and works alongside the Silver Key programs.

Two more things will keep a missed appointment from turning into a bigger problem. Tri-Lakes Cares has a Keep It Moving program that puts bus passes, oil changes and small car repairs behind a family so a dead battery does not cost a missed visit, and the same organization has limited funds for prescriptions, rent, mortgage, utilities, medical bills and transportation for northern El Paso County, including the Monument, Palmer Lake, Gleneagle and Academy ZIP codes and part of Black Forest.

Who answers the phone, and who does not

The Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging publishes the Yellow Book, a senior directory for El Paso, Park and Teller counties that has come out nearly every year since 1967, and it keeps an information line at (719) 471-2096. That is the number to keep by the phone, because it can tell you which of the programs below your address is the live one this year. For anything outside those three counties, the national directory answers at 800-677-1116.

Names in the Yellow Book do not always match the phone that answers today, and that is worth saying out loud here. Mountain Community Senior Services is still listed in the Yellow Book, out of a Palmer Lake post-office box, for social transportation and handyman work for people 60 and over, even though the Gazette reports the work was folded into Silver Key and the Tri-Lakes Silver Alliance. Falcon Senior Services, (719) 641-9893, covers the Falcon-Peyton side of the county next door, and its exercise groups meet in Falcon on Mondays and Fridays at Grace Community Church on Grace Church View. If a program matters to you, ask the county line which one is live today before you plan around it.

The business side of the Tri-Lakes

Local business knowledge is its own kind of support. The Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce sits at 166 2nd Street in Monument, (719) 481-3282, and its listings in the Yellow Book cover the practical side of the area, from services to the town's own civic contacts. Monument Town Hall is at 645 Beacon Lite Road and answers at 481-2954, and the Gazette's Tri-Lakes services directory runs through the same contacts for Monument, Palmer Lake and Woodmoor.

What that business layer buys a family is a fallback. When the ride cancels, when the paid caregiver is sick, when the pharmacy closes early, there is a set of phone numbers that belong to the valley rather than to a national call center. Keep them written down somewhere the person who is not the caregiver can find.

What paid hours actually add

A center day and a paid visit do different work. The center supplies a building, a lunch and people to talk to. Paid hours supply the things a building cannot: help in the shower, the slow walk to the bathroom, someone awake for the three in the morning hours when the sun comes up early on the Divide, and a second pair of hands for the person who has been doing this alone.

When you price that, our rate here is $40 an hour and a visit runs three hours minimum, so the shortest bookable visit is three hours of that rate, and a live-in day is $650 flat. There is no long-term contract to sign. If the money is the reason you hesitated, say so on the call. There are county programs, a benefits line, a veterans' network and an insurance policy that may all be sitting unclaimed, and we would rather sort through them with you before you decide anything.

When the caregiver is the one who is breaking

Caregiver burnout arrives quietly. It shows up as resentment at the pharmacy counter, as a phone call that gets shorter, as the sudden conviction that you are failing someone you love. If that is where you are, Colorado's crisis line can be reached by call or text 988, and the call is free. The Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging also funds caregiver resources for people over 60, and it is the same agency that can put a home modification or a meal program in place.

None of this replaces a family conversation, but it can make the conversation possible. And the first conversation does not have to be a decision. Call (303) 757-1777, talk for twenty minutes about a Wednesday that went badly, and let us put together an assessment in the home or over video at no cost. If you decide later that you do not want paid help, that assessment still stands, and nothing about it obliges you to sign anything.

Local resources in Monument

The Silver Key Tri-Lakes senior center in Monument (719-884-2300) is open nine in the morning until four in the afternoon on weekdays to older adults in Monument, Palmer Lake and Woodmoor, offering four to eight activities a day and a Connections Cafe hot lunch from 11:30 to 12:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; about 700 people use the activity calendar, and the center relocated into a Monument church in 2025. Source
Silver Key's vehicles take people to medical appointments and shopping, booked by calling (719) 884-2300, and the Yellow Book lists Reserve and Ride as door-through-door, ADA-accessible transportation. Source
Envida Moves, (719) 633-4677 at 5660 N Academy Blvd, Colorado Springs, coordinates transportation across El Paso and Teller counties alongside Silver Key and the Tri-Lakes senior services. Source
There is no local fixed-route bus in Monument or the Tri-Lakes; the Pikes Peak AAA mobility guide assigns the area to the senior-service transportation programs rather than a route. Source
Tri-Lakes Cares' Keep It Moving program covers bus passes, oil changes and minor car repairs so a vehicle failure does not become a missed appointment, and the organization provides limited assistance with prescriptions, rent, mortgage, utilities, medical and transportation costs in northern El Paso County, covering the Monument, Palmer Lake, Gleneagle and Academy ZIP codes and part of Black Forest. Source
The Pikes Peak AAA Yellow Book has been published nearly every year since 1967 as the senior directory for El Paso, Park and Teller counties; needs outside those counties are routed to the National Eldercare Locator at 800-677-1116. Source
Mountain Community Senior Services is listed in the Yellow Book out of a Palmer Lake post-office box, providing social transportation and handyman services to people 60 and over in the Tri-Lakes, while the Gazette reports Silver Key absorbed it and the Tri-Lakes Silver Alliance, so check which line answers today. Source
Falcon Senior Services, (719) 641-9893, serves the Falcon-Peyton area of eastern El Paso County beside Monument, with senior exercise groups meeting in Falcon on Mondays and Fridays at Grace Community Church, 9475 Grace Church View. Source
The Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce at 166 2nd St, Monument, (719) 481-3282, is listed in the Yellow Book's business resources for the area. Source
The Monument Town Hall is at 645 Beacon Lite Road and answers at 481-2954, per the Gazette's Tri-Lakes services directory covering Monument, Palmer Lake and Woodmoor. Source
Colorado's 988 crisis line is posted by regional senior resources; call or text 988. Source
The Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging is at 14 S. Chestnut St., Colorado Springs, with Senior Information and Assistance at (719) 471-2096, and its Older Americans Act programs for adults over 60 include caregiver resources, home modifications, personal and home care, transportation, meals, insurance and Medicaid support, and vision services. Source

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