COVID-19 and dementia care in the community: from UK evidence to systematically reviewing the evidence base

Presenter: Clarissa Giebel (University of Liverpool)

Abstract for the 6th and 7th December 2021 International workshop on COVID-19 and Long-Term Care systems: What have we learnt and what policies do we need to strengthen LTC systems?

Video of the presentation:

Clarissa Giebel: LTC-COVID Webinar 6 – 7 December 2021

Abstract

Accessing social support services, such as day care centres, support groups, or paid home care, are important to live well and independently in the community after a dementia diagnosis. The pandemic has affected access to care severely, and in this talk I will be sharing a selection of our UK-wide findings on the impacts of the pandemic on dementia care, and discuss our ongoing comprehensive systematic review into the topic area after 18 months of emerging evidence. As part of our mixed-methods research, we collected 50 remote baseline and 20 follow-up interviews with unpaid carers and people with dementia across the UK, asking them about their experiences of accessing care and whether services were providing any form of remote support. We found reductions in social care access immediately since lockdown, exacerbating existing inequalities in accessing care. These experiences were compounded by the frequent lack of understanding of public health restrictions in dementia. The ongoing comprehensive systematic review is an extension of this study and aims to explore the global impact of the pandemic on the lives of those affected by dementia.

Co-authors:

Kerry Hanna, University of Liverpool

Ruth Eley, TIDE

Kym Ward, The Brain Charity

Steve Callaghan, NIHR ARC NWC

Hilary Tetlow, NIHR ARC NWC

Jacqueline Cannon, Lewy Body Society

Carol Rogers, House of Memories

Rosie Whittington, Me2U Care

Mark Gabbay, University of Liverpool

Catherine Talbot, Bournemouth University

Rene Thyrian, DZNE

Aida Suarez-Gonzalez, UCL

Klara Lorenz, LSE

Katarzyna Lion, Griffith University

Links to relevant papers:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13607863.2020.1822292

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12939-021-01418-1

https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-10815-8

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