“If families with working parents struggle to arrange children’s lives for the summer, what can the end of the school year mean to employed parents with a disabled child?Marie Zharinov, whose autistic son needs full-time attention, knows that it means losing another job.Every summer I wind up having to quit, Zharinov said. This is the nightmare.German-born Zharinov, a translator who speaks 14 languages fluently, and her Russian carpenter husband moved to Bainbridge two years ago. They have been trying to find specialized day care ever since.It’s a problem to get respite providers anywhere, said Renata Lac, coordinator of the new Kitsap County Respite Care Provider Recruitment Program, but it’s particularly acute on Bainbridge right now.Lac said that Kitsap’s Division of Developmental Disabilities has long been aware of the shortage of respite workers – who give parents help with special-needs children – and that it’s a state-wide problem.Some families, like the Zharinovs, must have help to work. Others might simply need a childless Saturday night, or even just an hour alone. The natural breaks that a family typically has don’t exist for parents of disabled children. Even a five-minute trip to the grocery store can be a traumatic, hour-long ordeal with an autistic child who has difficulty making transitions. So Lac, who lives on Bainbridge and also has an autistic son, made a proposal to the county for a respite recruitment program; the program got under way last month.Only able to pay about $7 an hour, Lac knows she must recruit workers for whom monetary reward is not the only consideration. Respite care is quite varied, she said. There are many different age groups, situations, opportunities. It’s flexible and rewarding.In terms of the community as a whole, we want respite care to be used to access community supports.Workers may take clients to a park or a movie, and often provide disabled adults with companionship. People sometimes think that because they’re not trained, they can’t do respite care, Lac said, but an open and flexible personality is the key. Knowledge is not the crucial point. Zharinov’s experience illustrates the challenge parents have faced without a recruitment program – classified ads generated no response. When I use the word ‘autistic’ no one calls, Zharinov said. I’ve tried the all-island church bulletin board, Olympic College and Seattle Pacific University. I’ve asked school district teachers. She placed George in an island daycare, but workers there could not cope with his inclination to wander.Zharinov currently has two part time jobs. One in Seattle she prizes for the benefits and flexible hours; the other is translating for a Seattle firm.I have the capacity to earn a good living, Zharinov said, but it’s a circular problem – I can’t work if I can’t find the respite care. I know that whoever steps forward is going to have to be someone for whom this is a mission, not just a job.I hope that person is out there.Now, Zharinov says is willing to pay a respite worker and stay home to train the right person to care for her son.I’m willing to be flexible, whatever it takes, she said. It’s a desperate situation. If it weren’t for Helpline’s food bank, I don’t know where we’d be.Call (360) 710-5810 for more information about Kitsap County Respite Care Provider Recruitment. “