Redis connection & AWS Lambda warm start timeout error

What is the best way to handle connections to Redis & other data access providers within AWS Lambda spanning across many warm start invocations?

I'm getting the following error from Redis Error: Connection timeout. I believe this is from the Lambda being 'warm' for too long, causing the Redis connection time out for the next & all subsequent invocations until the Lambda goes cold

Here's the configuration I'm using:

const client = createClient({
  // creation configuration,
});
const connection = client.connect();

export const handler = async () => {
  try {
    await connection;

    // do things with client
  } catch (err) {
    await client.disconnect();
  }
};

A bit hesitant to connect within the handler as it omits the benefits of warm starts

Appreciate any advice