Hands and making
Pottery, painting and craft sessions run through the week. Useful for dexterity and grip strength, and one of the few activities where a guest with memory loss and one without can sit at the same table as equals.
Respite Care and Short Stay
Sometimes care cannot pause, but you need to. Aegis Respite Care gives your parent a safe, clinically supervised place to stay for a few days or a few weeks, in a residence built for older adults rather than adapted for them.
Ten rooms · 24/7 nursing · Geriatrician led · Colombo
Medically reviewed Clinically reviewed by Dr. Sithira Senevirathne, Consultant Geriatrician and Clinical Director, Aegis Health. Last reviewed August 2026.
Why families come to us
Most families who call us are not planning months ahead. They are in the middle of something. Respite care exists for exactly those moments.
A wedding overseas, a work posting, a holiday you have postponed for three years. Your parent stays somewhere clinically supervised rather than somewhere merely supervised.
The daughter, the son, the live-in carer. Caregiver exhaustion is real and it is medical. A planned break protects the person doing the caring, which in turn protects the person being cared for.
Discharged but not steady yet. A short supported stay bridges the gap between the ward and the front door, which is precisely the window in which most readmissions happen.
A carer has resigned, a home is being renovated, a family is still deciding on long-term care. A short stay buys the time to make the right decision instead of a rushed one.
Many families use a short stay to see how a parent settles before considering anything longer. There is no obligation on either side, and no pressure from us.
Illness in the family, a bereavement, a sudden hospital admission of the primary carer. We accept urgent enquiries and will tell you honestly what we can accommodate.
The residence
Most short stay care in Sri Lanka happens in buildings that were designed for something else. Ours was drawn around the people who live in it, by an architect on our own founding team.
That means level thresholds, corridors wide enough for a walking frame, handrails where they are actually needed, and rooms that open onto green space rather than a corridor wall. Small decisions, but they are the difference between a stay that feels like care and one that feels like a ward.
Where they stay
Our residence is deliberately small. Ten rooms means our nursing team knows every resident by name, their medication, their routine and their preferences within a day of arrival. Choose the level of privacy that suits your parent and your circumstances.
The most private option, and the one families choose when a parent values their own space above all else, or when a spouse wishes to stay alongside them.
Seniors who are largely independent, couples staying together, families who want a private space for visits, and longer respite stays.
Our most requested option. A private bedroom with a private bathroom, and easy access to the shared living and dining areas where the day actually happens.
Most short stay guests, seniors who want privacy at night and company during the day, and post-hospital recovery stays.
A shared four-bed room under continuous nursing observation. Companionship is not a consolation here. For many older adults, particularly those who become anxious or disoriented alone, being within sight of others is genuinely calming.
Seniors who prefer company, those who need higher observation levels, shorter stays, and families for whom affordability matters most.
Whichever room your parent stays in, the clinical care is identical. The only difference is privacy and space.
Every stay includes
Clinical Care
Daily Living
Engagement
Family Visibility
A day here
A respite stay is not a waiting room. Guests join whatever is running that day, at whatever level suits them, and nobody is made to take part.
Pottery, painting and craft sessions run through the week. Useful for dexterity and grip strength, and one of the few activities where a guest with memory loss and one without can sit at the same table as equals.
Music reaches people that conversation sometimes cannot. Familiar songs from a person's twenties and thirties are often the last thing to go, and an afternoon around the piano can settle a guest who arrived unsettled.
A short supervised walk most days, at whatever pace is right. Movement is the single best protection against the deconditioning that makes short stays turn into long ones, and the garden is where most family visits end up.
Why this is not an elders home
Short stays fail when nobody has the time to learn the person. Ours are built so that never happens.
Care decisions are made under the oversight of Dr. Sithira Senevirathne, Sri Lanka's first board-certified Consultant Geriatrician (NHS, UK). Most short stay facilities in Sri Lanka have no geriatrician involved at any point.
Vitals, medication and daily notes on your phone, from Colombo or Melbourne or Dubai. You are not waiting for someone to answer a call.
Ten rooms, not a hundred. Small enough that the team knows your parent within a day of arrival, which is what makes a short stay work at all.
If something changes during the stay, memory care, physiotherapy, nutrition and fall prevention are down the corridor rather than across the city.
Every stay ends with a written discharge summary. Nothing about your parent's care disappears when they walk out of the door.
A short stay is a short stay. If it becomes something longer, that is your decision and only when we genuinely believe it serves your parent.
From enquiry to arrival
We have kept the path simple, because families arranging respite care are rarely arranging it at a calm moment.
Call or send an enquiry. We will ask about your parent's health, mobility, medication, and what you need. Ten minutes, no obligation.
A nurse-led assessment, in person or by video, so we can confirm we are the right fit and prepare properly. We will tell you plainly if we are not the right place.
Come and see the rooms, meet the team, ask everything. We encourage the elder to visit too where possible. Familiarity before arrival makes the first night far easier.
We agree the care plan, the dates and the diet in writing before your parent arrives. Handover on the day takes about an hour.
Urgent admissions are considered case by case. If you are in a difficult situation right now, please call us rather than filling in a form.
Preparing for the stay
What families told us
“Father just had bypass surgery.
Guardian, 35 to 39, living overseas
Asked what first made them take a parent's health seriously, most named a single event. A hospital discharge, a fall, a scare.
Aegis Health Guardians & Adult Children survey, 2026 · 86 respondents · Published anonymously, verbatim. We will publish client testimonials once we have clients, and not before.
Questions
We accept stays from a single night, though most respite stays run from a few days to several weeks. Longer stays can be arranged where a family needs them.
We recommend one to two weeks so the pre-stay assessment can be completed properly. We do accept urgent enquiries and will always be honest with you about what we can accommodate at short notice.
Yes, subject to availability. We have ten rooms in total: three private suites, five rooms with ensuite, and one four-bed open ward. We recommend enquiring early for specific dates, particularly around holiday periods.
Nursing and caregiving cover is 24 hours a day. Geriatrician oversight is built into every stay, with in-person review scheduled according to clinical need, and we have an agreed escalation protocol for anything requiring hospital care.
Yes. Our team is trained in dementia care and our memory care clinic is on the same site. Tell us about behaviours, triggers and routines at assessment so we can prepare properly. In some cases we will specifically recommend the open ward, because continuous line-of-sight observation is safer and, for many guests, far less distressing than being alone.
Yes. Post-discharge recovery is one of the most common reasons families call us. Send us the discharge summary and we will tell you clearly what we can support.
Visitors are welcome during visiting hours. In our private suites there is space for a family member or a personal carer to stay overnight where that is needed.
Yes. Diabetic, renal, low-salt, soft and pureed diets are all catered for. Tell us at assessment and the requirement is written into the care plan.
Yes. You will have Aegis-EMR access showing vitals, medication and daily care notes, plus a daily wellness update and a named care coordinator you can call directly.
Rates vary by room type and the level of care required. Contact us and we will provide a clear written quotation after the assessment, with no hidden charges.
Yes. Many families begin with a short stay. There is no obligation in either direction, and we will only recommend a longer arrangement if we genuinely believe it serves your parent.
Rest is not a luxury for the person doing the caring. It is what makes the caring sustainable. Talk to our team about dates, rooms, and what your parent needs.
Ten rooms · 24 hour nursing · Geriatrician oversight · Colombo