Abstract
This case study analyzes one senior living and social service organization’s coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis response. We conducted interviews with n = 14 department managers to explore the organization’s pivot to remote work and service provision. We used the Pearson and Mitroff Crisis Management Framework to organize themes. A pre-existing culture of teamwork, willingness to adapt and adopt new approaches, and responsiveness to new policies and procedures facilitated the COVID-19 crisis response. However, low levels of digital literacy among staff, decreased job satisfaction due to no face-to-face interaction between care recipient and service provider, and lack of proactive policies for crisis response, which decreased the speed of enacting remote service provision, were obstacles in effective crisis response. Lessons learned from this case study highlight the need for pre-emptive policy creation on remote service provision and work from home policies, as well as training considerations for senior living and social service organizations.
Highlights
Older adults and the social service agencies or senior living communities that provide their care have acutely felt the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
Managers viewed the pivot to remote work and providing remote services as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic as feeling “uprooted” and “challenging”
For staff working in the senior living environments, the pandemic experience only added to the strain of pre-existing industry-wide issues of staffing levels and high turnover as staff testing positive for COVID-19 could not work and others with health issues or living in homes with immunocompromised individuals often selected to take Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) benefits, leaving teams with increased workload despite the agency maintaining all regulatory requirements for staffing at all times
Summary
Older adults and the social service agencies or senior living communities that provide their care have acutely felt the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Older people are at a higher risk for COVID-19-related hospitalization, intensive care admission, and mortality [1]. Eight out of ten COVID-19 deaths in the US have been adults age 65 and over [2]. The medical syndrome of frailty [3] and many of the pre-existing conditions prevalent among older adults, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and chronic lung disease, increase mortality risk with a COVID-19 diagnosis [2]. Pandemic-imposed isolation may disproportionally affect older adults, especially those with already limited social connections
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