Colliding worlds: Family carers’ experiences of balancing work and care in Ireland during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Abstract

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic public health and social protective measures imposed globally resulted in partial or full closure of key services and supports for services and supports for people with a disability, chronic illness or age-related dependency. This caused huge disruption to care provision and family carers were relied upon to assume this care at home. Many family carers, including those in employment, found themselves navigating additional care responsibilities without 'usual levels' of support from family, friends, work, school, day care services, homecare and community services. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on family carers, their employment and care-giving responsibilities, through the lens of the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989). Adopting a qualitative research approach, 16 family carers (14 females, 2 males) who were in employment prior to the onset of or during the pandemic, participated in an in-depth, semi-structured telephone or online video interview between June and September 2020. Interviews lasted between 45 and 100 min, were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. A thematic analysis of the interview data identified four main themes: colliding worlds; navigating unchartered waters alone; opportunity despite adversity and the relentless unknowing. Findings indicate that the onset of the pandemic resulted in the sudden loss of valued resources, which disrupted routines and caused care and work life domains to become intrinsically intertwined. Consistent with the main principles of the COR theory, adapting and transitioning to different ways of working and caring with depleted resources and supports, generated considerable stress for family carers and impacted their wellbeing. The implications for employers, healthcare providers, policy makers and other key stakeholders are considered, to enable family carers to successfully reconcile work with care and protect their well-being, as the pandemic continues to unfold and in the event of future societal crises.

Work-Family Interface in the Context of Social Responsibility: A Systematic Literature Review

“…The most analysed perspective in the literature on the work-family relationship has been the negative one, whose core concept is work-family conflict. In their study, Greenhaus and Beutell [4] highlight three types of conflict or relationship; transposing it to this research, they identified the following: (i) the first, temporal-based, arises from the time required to perform one role interfering with the time available to perform another, reducing said role [46,93,94]; (ii) the second refers to pressure conflicts and is based on the conception that the pressure caused in one domain will affect the other domain [35,41,44] and, (iii) the third refers to the type of behavioral conflict that concerns the incompatibility of behaviors expected in each of the roles [33,39,43].…”

Patient Reported Experience of Clinical Care of Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) During The COVID-19 Pandemic

“…This is echoed in our study, which showed that the percentage of those struggling with mental health increased from 61% to 76% for those with carers. Almost half of the respondents who required regular support or personal assistance at home had their hours either completely or partially reduced, which can create challenges at home with signi cant stress for the primary carers (24).…”

Places of paid work and unpaid work: Caregiving and work‐from‐home during COVID‐19

“…Social/physical distancing orders and loss of external support for their care-recipient has meant that many carers have been singularly providing care without respite or breaks, and often in the form of emotional support, leaving them vulnerable to poorer mental health (Embracing Carers 2020; Mata et al 2020;Lafferty et al 2021). At the same time, since many carers are working remotely from their own homes, they have seen their own homecare responsibilities increase and compound with work and caring obligations, as their work and home worlds collide and integrate in previously unforeseen ways.…”

“…Of 755 Canadian carers surveyed, 70% reported worsening emotional and mental health during the pandemic, with average weekly time spent caring increasing 28% to 21.6 hours per week at the time of Canada's second wave of cases (fall 2020), compared to the pre‐pandemic baseline (Embracing Carers 2020 ). Social/physical distancing orders and loss of external support for their care‐recipient has meant that many carers have been singularly providing care without respite or breaks, and often in the form of emotional support, leaving them vulnerable to poorer mental health (Embracing Carers 2020 ; Mata et al 2020 ; Lafferty et al 2021 ). At the same time, since many carers are working remotely from their own homes, they have seen their own homecare responsibilities increase and compound with work and caring obligations, as their work and home worlds collide and integrate in previously unforeseen ways.…”

“…Unsurprisingly, carer‐employees have undergone radical shifts in their daily activities since the COVID‐19 pandemic began. On top of disruptions to their work landscape, care landscapes have also been altered due to a reduction of external carer supports (such as respite care and day programs), outbreaks in long‐term care homes, and shutdown of non‐essential hospital and healthcare services as hospital capacity became strained with COVID cases (Embracing Carers 2020 ; Lafferty et al 2021 ). As a result, care burden has been heightened by shifts in the places and ways that care provision is carried out, especially when considering that care‐recipients are often high‐risk populations vulnerable to the COVID‐19 virus.…”