The Residents’ Experience of Social and Spatial Disconnection and Connection in Residential Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This qualitative intuitive inquiry into residential care in Sweden discusses effects of social and spatial connections and disconnections during the Covid-19 pandemic. Interviews were carried out with 11 residents living in three residential care homes. Observations and spatial analyses complemented the interviews. The study investigated residents’ experience of the altered use of architectural space during the different phases of the coronavirus pandemic. Restrictions comprised, in general, that public areas were emptied, while residents were confined to their private apartments 24 hours a day. This created an entirely different caring architecture and challenged the usual care model of community. However, many residents said that staying in their apartments around the clock was an experience that was very similar to ordinary days in residential care, since they normally stayed long hours in their apartments. However, the residents’ disconnection from local information about the disease created a situation of great ambiguity and uncertainty about the progress of the pandemic and the state of the disease in the home. The interviewees claimed nevertheless that they had not been particularly worried about the situation. They had continued with normal leisure activities to make the time pass. It seems as though the disconnection from most of the spaces outside their apartments, as well as from staff, family and fellow residents, made it possible for them to disconnect themselves from awareness of the dangers of the disease caused by Covid-19.