Project summary:

The Coronavirus outbreak shed light on major weaknesses that have been characterizing the Italian Long Term Care (LTC) for years. The research focuses on identifying which one were exacerbated in this time of crisis and so to support the understanding of the discontent that the sector has been experiencing over the past decade and future routes of innovation. The analysis is made of four parts: first, analyzing the main features of the Italian LTC sector before the Covid-19 outbreak to investigate the origins of the sector’s weaknesses; second, to deep dive on what happened in nursing homes at the peak of the emergence to investigate the role that the above-mentioned weaknesses played; third, analyzing regional policies for the LTC sector enacted in the hardest months for the country so to assess the institutional attitude towards the sector from the perspective of the public authorities in charge of regulating LTC, namely Regions; last, investigating care providers perspectives so to collect their original point of view concerning the impact of Covid-19 on the sector future. Consistently, the research approach is based on data concerning: LTC services distribution in the country; the spread of the Coronavirus among elderly in Italy and in nursing homes; a mapping of norms enacted in 9 regions on LTC during phase 1 and phase 2 of the emergency; a survey with care providers concerning the impact of Covid-19 on the sector. The research wants to contribute by discussing the main managerial issues stakeholders and policy makers should work on to solve the sector’s major weaknesses and support the sector in the future. Some example of topics that are discussed are: providers’ economic and financial sustainability; the management of human resources; measures to ensure proper coordination among LTC and healthcare services, and among the public and private world; the mission the LTC sector should pursue, along with its services.

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:

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.