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Resources and Services for Family Caregivers in the Time of COVID-19

COVID-19 has led to increased burden on family caregivers (FCGs) for people living with dementia (PLWD), while simultaneously limiting the resources available to them. Our study surveyed Alberta, Canada FCGs to assess their needs and generate recommendations to inform policies about care access, res...

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Autores principales: McGhan, Gwen, McCaughey, Deirdre, Flemons, Kristin, Hindmarch, Whitney
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8679717/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igab046.1247
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author McGhan, Gwen
McCaughey, Deirdre
Flemons, Kristin
Hindmarch, Whitney
author_facet McGhan, Gwen
McCaughey, Deirdre
Flemons, Kristin
Hindmarch, Whitney
author_sort McGhan, Gwen
collection PubMed
description COVID-19 has led to increased burden on family caregivers (FCGs) for people living with dementia (PLWD), while simultaneously limiting the resources available to them. Our study surveyed Alberta, Canada FCGs to assess their needs and generate recommendations to inform policies about care access, resources, and agency supports. We conducted a mixed methods study using a sequential triangulation design (QUANTITATIVE + qualitative). Our Community Advisory Committee was involved in all stages of study planning, execution, and dissemination. Survey results informed the qualitative data collected from focus groups with FCGs. A total of 230 FCGs participated in the survey, with an average age of 59. The average age of PLWD was 75. The majority were women (77%), 46% were spouses and 41% were adult children. Respondents reported feeling more isolated (69%), more strain (66%) and decreased quality of life (55%) compared to pre-pandemic. Resource use by FCGs decreased from an average of 5 resources pre-pandemic to 1.6 during COVID-19. Services including day programs and home care were no longer available or reconfigured, leading to greater strain and heightened need for respite, which was also unavailable. Focus groups highlighted that system navigation and accessing services during COVID-19 was overly burdensome, leaving FCGs feeling abandoned by the system. FCGs reported an increase in caregiving responsibility and less access to services resulting in PLWD experiencing a decline in wellness and function. As such: 1) resources should be consistently available for FCGs and 2) FCGs require clear, correct, and concise information about COVID-19.
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spelling pubmed-86797172021-12-17 Resources and Services for Family Caregivers in the Time of COVID-19 McGhan, Gwen McCaughey, Deirdre Flemons, Kristin Hindmarch, Whitney Innov Aging Abstracts COVID-19 has led to increased burden on family caregivers (FCGs) for people living with dementia (PLWD), while simultaneously limiting the resources available to them. Our study surveyed Alberta, Canada FCGs to assess their needs and generate recommendations to inform policies about care access, resources, and agency supports. We conducted a mixed methods study using a sequential triangulation design (QUANTITATIVE + qualitative). Our Community Advisory Committee was involved in all stages of study planning, execution, and dissemination. Survey results informed the qualitative data collected from focus groups with FCGs. A total of 230 FCGs participated in the survey, with an average age of 59. The average age of PLWD was 75. The majority were women (77%), 46% were spouses and 41% were adult children. Respondents reported feeling more isolated (69%), more strain (66%) and decreased quality of life (55%) compared to pre-pandemic. Resource use by FCGs decreased from an average of 5 resources pre-pandemic to 1.6 during COVID-19. Services including day programs and home care were no longer available or reconfigured, leading to greater strain and heightened need for respite, which was also unavailable. Focus groups highlighted that system navigation and accessing services during COVID-19 was overly burdensome, leaving FCGs feeling abandoned by the system. FCGs reported an increase in caregiving responsibility and less access to services resulting in PLWD experiencing a decline in wellness and function. As such: 1) resources should be consistently available for FCGs and 2) FCGs require clear, correct, and concise information about COVID-19. Oxford University Press 2021-12-17 /pmc/articles/PMC8679717/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igab046.1247 Text en © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Abstracts
McGhan, Gwen
McCaughey, Deirdre
Flemons, Kristin
Hindmarch, Whitney
Resources and Services for Family Caregivers in the Time of COVID-19
title Resources and Services for Family Caregivers in the Time of COVID-19
title_full Resources and Services for Family Caregivers in the Time of COVID-19
title_fullStr Resources and Services for Family Caregivers in the Time of COVID-19
title_full_unstemmed Resources and Services for Family Caregivers in the Time of COVID-19
title_short Resources and Services for Family Caregivers in the Time of COVID-19
title_sort resources and services for family caregivers in the time of covid-19
topic Abstracts
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8679717/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igab046.1247
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