Research Projects on COVID-19 and Long-Term Care

This page gathers information about completed or ongoing research projects on COVID-19 and long-term care. If you would like to to contribute information about your project, please complete our online submission form.

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Impact of COVID-19 public health measures on the life and wellbeing and access to care and support of people living with dementia and care partners in AustraliaOngoing

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Contact: Yun-Hee Jeon https://www.sydney.edu.au/medicine-health/about/our-people/academic-staff/yun-hee-jeon.html

Host institution: The University of Sydney

Project team: Yun-Hee Jeon, Mirim Shin, Donna Waters, Elizabeth Beattie, Henry Brodaty, Tony Hobbs, Kaele Stokes, Jason Burton, Sue Kurrle, Fran McInery, Jane Thompson, and Kimberley Bassett.

Funding information: None

Project summary:

The aims of this study are, from the perspectives of those with the lived experience, to examine the impact of COVID-19
public health measures on the life and wellbeing and access to care and support of people living with dementia and their care partners
(family, friends and other informal carers); and identify key issues and challenges as well as key lessons in terms of what
worked well, what did not, what was helpful and what was not.

METHODS
Design: A repeated cross-sectional survey of people living with dementia and current care partners, complemented by a
follow-up qualitative interview

Participants: People living with dementia and carer partners (families/friends who have primary care responsibility) in Australia

Recruitment: Volunteers from StepUp for Dementia Research and StepUp Champion Organisations (aged care providers and dementia peak bodies).

Data collection: Online and Telephone survey using REDCap (Time 1 in June-July 2020 & Time 2 in mid 2021, and qualitative interview (in August-September 2020).

Outputs:

The study is ongoing (Time 2 survey to be conducted April-May 2021)

Initial findings have been reported in the Dementia Australia discussion paper: One day the support was gone: The mental health impact of COVID-19 on people living with dementia, their families and carers. https://www.dementia.org.au/sites/default/files/2020-11/PFOD-Discussion-Paper-Nov-2020-ver1.pdf

Project website:https://www.stepupfordementiaresearch.org.au/category/in-the-news/

PUBLICATIONS & OTHER OUTPUTS

Litigation in Response to COVID-19 in Australian Residential Aged Care and Immigration Detention (Australia)Ongoing

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Contact: Claire Loughnan https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/146247-claire-loughnan

Host institution: University of Melbourne and University of Technology Sydney

Project team: Sara Dehm, Claire Loughnan, Linda Steele

Funding information:

Project summary:

This project evaluates emerging litigation in relation to COVID-19 related deaths in Australian residential aged care centres, in terms of its capacity to address longer term structural harms of institutionalisation and activist calls for de-institutionalisation of aged care. In order to facilitate evaluation, the project compares aged care COVID-19 litigation with COVID-19 litigation strategies and outcomes in the context of an analogous confinement setting: immigration detention. The project involves critical analysis of court documents in COVID-19 litigation by reference to an interdisciplinary theoretical framework drawing on socio-legal studies, critical disability and ageing studies, and migration studies.

Outputs:

An article from this project has now been published:

Dehm S, Loughnan C and Steele L (2021) COVID-19 and Sites of Confinement: Public Health, Disposable Lives and Legal Accountability in Immigration Detention and Aged Care. UNSW Law Journal 44(1). http://www.unswlawjournal.unsw.edu.au/article/covid-19-and-sites-of-confinement-public-health-disposable-lives-and-legal-accountability-in-immigration-detention-and-aged-care/

Abstract:

The global COVID-19 pandemic starkly revealed the underlying structural harms and produced vulnerabilities for people living in closed congregate settings like immigration detention centres (‘IDCs’) and residential aged care facilities (‘RACFs’). This article compares the Australian legal regimes that regulate IDCs and RACFs, conceptualising both as authorising and enabling sites of control, confinement and social isolation. We argue that specific COVID-19 measures have intensified a logic of social exclusion and disposability towards people in IDCs and RACFs. Through comparing recent COVID-19 litigation, the article explores the possibilities and limitations of engaging legal strategies to achieve social reform and legal accountability within both sites of confinement. Ultimately, we suggest that such COVID-19 litigation has the greatest possibility of advancing social justice when it is embedded in a broader politics of de-incarceration and abolition oriented towards political inclusion, public health and building more equitable and just communities.

Project website:

PUBLICATIONS & OTHER OUTPUTS

The COVID-19 outbreak in the nursing home sector – does ownership matter?Ongoing

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Contact: Florien Kruse https://betaalbaarheidvanzorg.nl/en/about

Host institution: Radboud Medical Centre, IQ healthcare

Project team: Amy Hsu (Canada) Marcello Marciano (England) Stephen Allan (England) Elizabeth Lemmon (Scotland) David Bell (Scotland) Maria Aurora Fenech (Malta) Sara Charlesworth (Australia) Patrick Jeurissen (The Netherlands) Adelina Comas-Herrera

Funding information: Not funded

Project summary:

This research project focuses on whether ownership is relevant to the severity of COVID-19 outbreaks in the nursing home sector. It carries the title ‘The COVID-19 outbreak in the nursing home sector – does ownership matter?’

This research consists of (at least) two parts. Firstly, it will provide a rapid review of the evidence available on this topic. Secondly, this project will follow a case-study approach to embed the findings in their respective national context. This part of the research project will be our main contribution. We will use input from various countries (e.g. Canada and Australia) to draw conclusions. If there is sufficient data, we will analyse the relationship between the composition of the long-term care sector (i.e. for-profit providers’ share of total beds in nursing homes and/or number of homes) and the share of COVID-19 deaths in the long-term care sector across different countries.

Outputs:

January/February 2021

Project website:

PUBLICATIONS & OTHER OUTPUTS

The impacts of COVID-19 public health measures on people living with dementia in the community and unpaid carers – An international 5-country study (Australia, India, Italy, Poland and UK)Ongoing

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Contact: Clarissa Giebel https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/population-health-sciences/staff/clarissa-giebel/

Host institution: University of Liverpool

Project team: Clarissa Giebel

Funding information: NIHR ARC NWC

Project summary:

Led by the UK, we are collecting qualitative and quantitative data on the experiences of public health measures on the lives of people living with dementia and unpaid carers in the UK, Australia, Poland, Italy, and India. This involve telephone semi-structured interviews with up to 25 participants in each country, as well as follow-up interviews in the UK and Australia. These findings are complemented by an online and telephone survey. This study will provide the very first international comparative analysis of the impacts of the pandemic on dementia.

Outputs:

Early Spring 2021

Project website:

PUBLICATIONS & OTHER OUTPUTS

Single Site Employment During Covid-19 in Residential Aged Care Facilities, A Multi-Stakeholder PerspectiveComplete

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Contact: Professor Denise Jepsen https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/persons/denise-jepsen

Host institution: Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

Project team: Professor Denise Jepsen, Toni Barker

Funding information: This research was commissioned and funded in October 2020 by Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA) on behalf of the sector-led consortium also including Leading Age Services Australia (LASA), The Guild and several Unions.

Project summary:

Report on a study into the implementation of the single-site employment (SSE) practices introduced as part the Guiding Principle for Victorian residential aged care facilities (RACFs) in 2020 to assist with managing the Covid-19 outbreak. A mix of employee, union, peak and advocate plus provider interviews were conducted.

Outputs:

Discussion document intended to provide a comprehensive multi-stakeholder perspective on this new employment practice.

Project website:

PUBLICATIONS & OTHER OUTPUTS

Jepsen-Barker-MQ-Covid-Residential-Aged-Care-Single-Site-Employment-final-report-210606-1.pdf (4.3 MB)