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Voices from Service Providers Who Supported Young Caregivers throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Canadian Context

This empirical research is part of a larger project beginning in 2020 and ongoing until 2023, exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young caregivers aged 5–25 years and their families in Canada. This qualitative research utilizes the social determinants of health as a conceptual framework...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Newman, Kristine, Chalmers, Heather, Ciotti, Sarah, Wang, Arthur Ze Yu, Luxmykanthan, Luxmhina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10419008/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37568993
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20156446
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author Newman, Kristine
Chalmers, Heather
Ciotti, Sarah
Wang, Arthur Ze Yu
Luxmykanthan, Luxmhina
author_facet Newman, Kristine
Chalmers, Heather
Ciotti, Sarah
Wang, Arthur Ze Yu
Luxmykanthan, Luxmhina
author_sort Newman, Kristine
collection PubMed
description This empirical research is part of a larger project beginning in 2020 and ongoing until 2023, exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young caregivers aged 5–25 years and their families in Canada. This qualitative research utilizes the social determinants of health as a conceptual framework and a collective case study design to emphasize the voices and experiences of service providers (professionals offering services to young caregiver clients) during the COVID-19 pandemic, and exploring their perspectives on the impact of the pandemic on young caregivers and their families. The central research question guiding this study was “How do service providers (professionals) working with young caregiver clients in Canada describe the impacts of the pandemic on themselves, their professional praxis, and on their young caregiver clients?” The aim of this study was to develop a deeper understanding of the impact of the pandemic on young caregivers in Canada, from the perspectives of service providers, as well as to understand the experiences of service providers in their own voices. Data were collected from service providers working within three (3) different organizations offering programs and services to young caregiver clients in Ontario, Canada. In total, six (6) individual interviews were conducted with service providers who were directors/program managers, and four (4) group interviews were conducted with thirteen (13) service providers who were frontline staff members who worked directly with young caregivers and their families. In total, nineteen (n = 19) unique service providers participated in this study. Our findings point to two primary overarching themes, namely (1) service providers’ responses to the pandemic and (2) observations by service providers about the impacts of the pandemic on young caregivers, and a secondary theme, (3) positive outcomes from the COVID-19 pandemic on young caregivers, that emerged through the analysis. The pandemic led to increased demands for services by young caregiver clients. Service providers were required to adapt their service delivery methods in order to comply with public health guidelines. They shared how their work impacted their mental health as they struggled to maintain personal and professional boundaries while working from home during the pandemic. Importantly, service providers identified similar, simultaneous, and co-occurring impacts of the pandemic between their young caregiver clients, including isolation, difficulties in navigating online spaces, and challenges in navigating boundaries while working from home with family members.
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spelling pubmed-104190082023-08-12 Voices from Service Providers Who Supported Young Caregivers throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Canadian Context Newman, Kristine Chalmers, Heather Ciotti, Sarah Wang, Arthur Ze Yu Luxmykanthan, Luxmhina Int J Environ Res Public Health Article This empirical research is part of a larger project beginning in 2020 and ongoing until 2023, exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young caregivers aged 5–25 years and their families in Canada. This qualitative research utilizes the social determinants of health as a conceptual framework and a collective case study design to emphasize the voices and experiences of service providers (professionals offering services to young caregiver clients) during the COVID-19 pandemic, and exploring their perspectives on the impact of the pandemic on young caregivers and their families. The central research question guiding this study was “How do service providers (professionals) working with young caregiver clients in Canada describe the impacts of the pandemic on themselves, their professional praxis, and on their young caregiver clients?” The aim of this study was to develop a deeper understanding of the impact of the pandemic on young caregivers in Canada, from the perspectives of service providers, as well as to understand the experiences of service providers in their own voices. Data were collected from service providers working within three (3) different organizations offering programs and services to young caregiver clients in Ontario, Canada. In total, six (6) individual interviews were conducted with service providers who were directors/program managers, and four (4) group interviews were conducted with thirteen (13) service providers who were frontline staff members who worked directly with young caregivers and their families. In total, nineteen (n = 19) unique service providers participated in this study. Our findings point to two primary overarching themes, namely (1) service providers’ responses to the pandemic and (2) observations by service providers about the impacts of the pandemic on young caregivers, and a secondary theme, (3) positive outcomes from the COVID-19 pandemic on young caregivers, that emerged through the analysis. The pandemic led to increased demands for services by young caregiver clients. Service providers were required to adapt their service delivery methods in order to comply with public health guidelines. They shared how their work impacted their mental health as they struggled to maintain personal and professional boundaries while working from home during the pandemic. Importantly, service providers identified similar, simultaneous, and co-occurring impacts of the pandemic between their young caregiver clients, including isolation, difficulties in navigating online spaces, and challenges in navigating boundaries while working from home with family members. MDPI 2023-07-26 /pmc/articles/PMC10419008/ /pubmed/37568993 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20156446 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Newman, Kristine
Chalmers, Heather
Ciotti, Sarah
Wang, Arthur Ze Yu
Luxmykanthan, Luxmhina
Voices from Service Providers Who Supported Young Caregivers throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Canadian Context
title Voices from Service Providers Who Supported Young Caregivers throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Canadian Context
title_full Voices from Service Providers Who Supported Young Caregivers throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Canadian Context
title_fullStr Voices from Service Providers Who Supported Young Caregivers throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Canadian Context
title_full_unstemmed Voices from Service Providers Who Supported Young Caregivers throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Canadian Context
title_short Voices from Service Providers Who Supported Young Caregivers throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Canadian Context
title_sort voices from service providers who supported young caregivers throughout the covid-19 pandemic in the canadian context
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10419008/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37568993
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20156446
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