I am looking at respite for my dad when I go away. What do I need to do and who do I contact?

Call few facilities, around me there is several who provide respite for days, weeks. Don’t rely on caregivers as with shortages of workers lately this will not improve and you want your vacation to be stress free knowing Dad has 24 hour care.

Was your father ever active military? If so you might look into Veterans Aid and Attendance and see if he qualifies for any type of assistance through the VA potentially. This is generally provided either via time in a SNF I believe or it can also be done via in home assistance like Home Instead or Visiting Angels or places similar in your area.

If he was never in the military or does not quality for A&A, you could still do exactly the same thing out of pocket - look into a SNF or AL that has availability for the time you will be gone and pay out of pocket - that would probably be cheaper in the long run than paying out of pocket for 24/7 in home care.

We did do 24/7 in home care for my FIL 2 years ago - with the help of A&A thankfully - I think they covered his normal 9 hours a week that he gets his bath aide covered plus an additional amount that he was covered for respite for the year. I know that amount has changed and I don't know how/if respite is still covered in the same way now. But they did cover some at that time. But the remainder he paid out of pocket. And that was something like $20-$25 per hour. They started out doing 3 shifts of 8 hours but ended up changing it to 2 shifts of 12 hours after a couple of days. We were gone a week. He did really well because he enjoyed having someone up with him all of his crazy hours that he keeps.

So it really depends on what kind of care you are looking for. Good luck. I will say when we decided on in home ( because he categorically refused to go anywhere) we put together a notebook of emergency numbers, lists of his medications, his doctors, favorite restaurants (for takeout), where things were in the house, anything we could think of that they might need - just in case he could not tell them something and they could not get a hold of us for some reason.

A lot of your assisted living facilities and memory cares offer respite care for folks. It can be a great way to introduce your dad to a facility that he may eventually end up living in.
You probably just need to either "Google" respite care in my area or call around to facilities in your area.
Best wishes.