Taking care for those who take care: Experiences of informal caregivers of dependent elderly people in a COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had catastrophic consequences worldwide in different scopes, such as healthcare, education, housing, among others. As an important consequence, it revealed the fragility of social protection systems in Latin America, as depicted in the lack of alternative mechanisms to respond to the complex demands raised by the pandemics. As for healthcare systems, all efforts were focused in COVID-19 patients, leaving aside other patients, as bedridden patients who used to receive complementary attention at home, causing a big deal of stress to their informal home care providers. This research analyzes the perceptions, challenges, and expectations of informal care providers in this pandemic context. Throughout a six-month period, 12 semi structured interviews were performed online. The information was analyzed based on the principles of Grounded Theory, showing this has been a period particularly negative for informal care providers, as the offer of support public services has been diminished, increasing the perception of abandonment and vulnerability. Public policies to be developed are also discussed.