Abstract
BackgroundPeople with dementia (PwD) and their informal caregivers (caregiving dyads) face multiple impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including restricted social support services and social isolation. With limited opportunities for caregiving dyads to participate in social activities during the pandemic, the potential of social technology to support social participation and dyadic relationships should be explored. As a part of an ongoing feasibility trial, this study assesses how COVID-19 has impacted community-dwelling dyads in a dementia caregiving context. The dyads' use of social technology and their motivations to invite technology into social interactions are explored.MethodsA pilot case study employing baseline interview data from three community-dwelling caregiving dyads. Each dyad consisted of a husband with a dementia diagnosis and his wife, who performed most caregiving tasks. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and subjected to inductive thematic analysis. Two researchers independently coded the data, and collated the codes and themes collaboratively.ResultsTwo themes and seven subthemes were identified: (i) living with dementia during COVID-19 (subthemes: social and leisure activities, dyadic interactions, adjusting as caregiver); and (ii) the role of technology in a pandemic (subthemes: facilitating social activities, facilitating dementia care-related activities, barriers and facilitators to using social technology, the underlying motivation to invite technology into interactions). Dyads who were socially active pre-COVID-19, and who managed to make good use of technology to facilitate and maintain their social engagement during COVID-19, reported to have been less negatively impacted by COVID-related social restrictions.ConclusionThe dyads differed in how COVID-19 restrictions impacted their lives and how they coped with dementia, revealing different motivations for wanting to invite technology into their social interactions. During and beyond this pandemic, social technology can be a valuable tool for promoting social participation in this population, especially when in-person social contact is restricted. Successful uptake of social technology is dependent on customizing it to the individual's needs and conditions. Therefore, efforts are needed to tackle barriers that exist for older adults in using such technology.
Highlights
People with dementia (PwD) and their informal caregivers face multiple impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including restricted social support services and social isolation
How has social technology contributed to mitigating the impact of social isolation and limited support offers available to caregiving dyads?
The extent to which dementia caregiving dyads had to adjust to the COVID-19 restrictions seemed to be influenced by two main factors: how socially active the dyad had been within their social support networks, and their familiarity with social technology
Summary
People with dementia (PwD) and their informal caregivers (caregiving dyads) face multiple impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including restricted social support services and social isolation. With limited opportunities for caregiving dyads to participate in social activities during the pandemic, the potential of social technology to support social participation and dyadic relationships should be explored. As a part of an ongoing feasibility trial, this study assesses how COVID-19 has impacted community-dwelling dyads in a dementia caregiving context. People with dementia (PwD) and their informal caregivers face multiple impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID19 restrictions led to most non-essential services being closed, leaving many community-dwelling PwD and their informal caregivers with few activities to engage in outside their homes. Being largely confined to their homes since March 2020 has led to isolation by restricting the support networks available to caregiving dyads. “caring for the carer” approaches are needed to meet the physical and the emotional needs of informal caregivers through psychosocial interventions [11]
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