Project summary:

View Care: The primary goal of the project is to gain insights into the current situation, the experience, the organisation of needs and coping strategies of people in need of care during the Corona pandemic. The focus is put on the individual experience and the subsequent sense definitions of the individuals. The theoretical explanations of the current situation of people in need of care are extended by making the new reality’s processing of the subjects themselves a topic. This perspective has been virtually unexamined up to now. Sociological perspectives within the framework of reconstructive social research have only been marginally represented in care research so far. This study aims to expand the methodological and content-related repertoire of previous health services research.

Project summary:

In a multi-phase study, cross-sectional as well as longitudinal observational data on challenges and ressources of long-term care facilities in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic are collected through an online-survey of directors of nursing and nurse managers. Since april 2020, two phases of data collection have been conducted. Responses for t1 (april to may 2020) include 824 nursing homes, 701 home care services and 96 daycare facilities. Responses for t2 (january to february 2021) inculde 385 nursing homes, 442 home care services and 80 daycare facilities. Next to descriptive statistics on prevalence of COVID-19 among residents and nursing staff, results include numbers on changes in the utilization of nursing care services during the pandemic, on availability of protective gear, on implementation of infection control guidelines and on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to support social participation of residents and orgnaization of care processes.

Project summary:

Long-term care services, in particular care homes, have been badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic but to varying degree across countries. Between 0 and 80% of all cases of COVID-19 deaths have occurred among care home residents, while it is currently under-researched how home care users and LTC staff are affected. There is also considerable variation in the timing, sequencing and content of measures applied, on a general societal level, as well as in those applied in the LTC sector specifically, such as care home lock-downs and access to PPE and testing.

There is urgent need for policy makers and LTC provider organizations to learn from the emerging evidence, not the least in Sweden with comparably high death rates in society as a whole and in the LTC sector. Therefore, the aim of this scoping review is to identify and learn in a systematic way how older LTC users especially but also care workers and whole provider organizations are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures introduced. The review will focus on different measures and their effect on disease spreading and mortality among users and staff, as well as the effect on wellbeing and Quality of Life among users. When possible, the review will consider variation related to gender, class, ethnicity, and region in user outcomes.

We will map the emerging body of evidence, identify research gaps, and make recommendations for future research. The review is used also to inform six case studies (D, DK, ES, N, S, UK), presenting a time line of measures introduced and infection and mortality rates in LTC. In comparison to the review, this will have the country as a focus and will provide a more in-depth understanding of the relations between measures and outcomes, which will allow us to report on best practices and knowledge gaps.

Project summary:

The Mc-COVID 19 project is set to analyse the socio-sanitary co-ordination procedures in the context of institutionalized older-age care (age group that appears particularly vulnerable in this epidemic context), in Spain as well as in the rest of the EU-15. This study focuses on the articulation of resources between health and social policies, and aim to contribute to improve the effectiveness of the decision-making process and crucial aspects in the fight against the pandemic. To better understand what happened in these centres and facilitate policy learning, this study identifies the difficulties faced by institutional actors and nursing homes’ managers between January and August 2020. To this end, the research team conducted 25 in-depth interviews with managers in such centres (directors, administrators, and medical supervisors) in various Spanish regions (Comunidades Autónomas). In addition, the research group interviewed high-ranking officials responsible for both social services and public healthcare at the central and regional levels, and representatives of the trade unions and the employers’ associations of the nursing homes. Furthermore, the team examined documents issued by governmental and independent sources, together with the results of a survey elaborated by the Institute for the Older-age and Social Services (IMSERSO) of the Ministry of Health. Findings aim to be useful to inform other public policy sectors involved in crisis-related situations.

Project summary:

Context: The measures taken to counter the COVID-19 pandemic restricted the circular migration of live-in care workers between their countries of origin and the elderly persons’ households.

Objective: In this comparative policy analysis, the impact of COVID-19 related policy measures for transnationally organised live-in care in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland is investigated.

Method: Policy measures and media debates were analysed and inquiries with care workers, representatives of care agencies, unions, and activist groups were carried out between March and June 2020.

Findings: In accordance with their institutionalisation of live-in care, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland responded differently to the challenges the pandemic posed to live-in care arrangements. However, all three countries focused on extending care workers’ rotas and re-establishing transnational mobility. These priorities subordinated the interests of care workers to those of care recipients. Furthermore, the measures remained short-term solutions that failed to acknowledge the fundamental flaws and inequalities of a care model that relies primarily on female migrant workers and wage differentials within Europe.

Limitations: This policy comparison is based on an in-depth analysis of COVID-19 related policies, supplemented by inquiries among stakeholders with whom research had been done prior to the pandemic. More in-depth interviews are required to further substantiate the findings concerning their perspectives and gain insight into the longer-term effects of the pandemic.

Implications: The pandemic has brought the flaws of the live-in care model to the fore. Countries need to rethink their fragile care policies, which build on social inequality and uninhibited transnational mobility.

Project summary:

The coronavirus pandemic poses major challenges to many groups. One of these, however, is usually not in the focus of public interest – the informal caregivers. This study therefore investigated the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on family carers and how social distancing measures and higher hygiene requirements affect informal carers. For this purpose, more than 1,000 informal caregivers in Germany who are younger than 67 years and for whom multiple burdens from work, family and care are common were surveyed with an online questionnaire about the care situation, the compatibility of care and work and changes in their perceived burden of care as well as their state of health.