Health service experiences and preferences of frail home care clients and their family and friend caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic

BMC Research Notes

Kathleen Ledoux¹  Bradley Hiebert¹  Lorie Donelle¹  Lori E. Weeks²  Sue Nesto³  Grace Warner³  Wendy Luciano³ 

[1] Arthur Labatt School of Nursing, Western University, London, ON, Canada;School of Nursing, Dalhousie University, B3H 4R2, Halifax, NS, Canada;School of Occupational Therapy, Dalhousie University, B3H 4R2, Halifax, NS, Canada;

关键词: COVID-19;    Remote monitoring;    Home care;    Older adults;    Frailty;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13104-021-05686-6

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

ObjectiveThe COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a major upheaval in the lives of older adults and their family/friend caregivers, including those utilizing home care services. In this article, we focus on results from a qualitative component added to a pragmatic randomized controlled trial that focuses on the experiences of our study participants during COVID-19. A total of 29 participants responded to the COVID-19 related questions focused on their health services experiences and preferences from March-June 2020 including 10 home care clients and 19 family/friend caregivers in the provinces of Ontario and Nova Scotia, Canada.ResultsMany participants were affected drastically by the elimination or reduction of access to services, highlighting the vulnerability of home care clients and their caregivers during COVID-19. This took an emotional toll on home care clients and increased the need for family/friend caregiver support. While many participants expressed reduced desire to utilize residential long-term care homes, some caregivers found that passive remote monitoring technology was particularly useful within the COVID-19 context. Our results provide important insights into the ways the older adults and their caregivers have been affected during the COVID-19 context and how to better support them in the future.

【 授权许可】

CC BY