Cardiff Metropolitan University
Browse

Trapped: Experiences of unpaid carers of clinically vulnerable people “shielding” during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

Download (461.16 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2023-09-28, 15:27 authored by Daniel Burrows, Jen Lyttleton-Smith, Lucy Sheehan, Siôn Jones, Richard Kyle

Summary

Unpaid carers were profoundly impacted by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and public health responses. In the UK, in March 2020, people identified as clinically extremely vulnerable and their household members were advised to “shield” for an initial 12-week period, which meant minimizing all contacts from outside the household and not leaving the house at all, unless in an emergency. In a modified form, shielding guidance remained in place until August 2020 and was reinstituted from December 2020 until April 1, 2021. This article, reporting on qualitative interviews with 47 unpaid carers in Wales, thematically analyzed using a coding framework, explores the experiences of unpaid carers affected by this shielding guidance and their wider implications for social work with unpaid carers in the future.

Findings

Participants in our study described ways in which their caring role expanded, due to the need to provide additional practical and emotional support for loved ones who were shielding, and who lost access to other avenues of support. Some also described their caring role as becoming more involved and complex due to the declining health or self-care capacity of the person cared-for as a direct consequence of shielding restrictions. Alongside the increase in their caring responsibilities, carers reported losing access to important avenues of support for their own well-being.

Applications

We draw on ecological systems theory to highlight the importance during care planning and management of exploring the carer's mesosystem to identify and optimize sustaining forces, and of attending to the microsystem involving the carer and person cared-for.

History

Publisher

Sage

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Citation

Burrows, D., Lyttleton-Smith, J., Sheehan, L., Jones, S., & Kyle, R. (2023) 'Trapped: Experiences of unpaid carers of clinically vulnerable people “shielding” during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic', Journal of Social Work. https://doi.org/10.1177/14680173231197628

Print ISSN

1468-0173

Electronic ISSN

1741-296X

Cardiff Met Affiliation

  • Cardiff School of Education and Social Policy

Cardiff Met Authors

Jen Lyttleton-Smith

Copyright Holder

  • © The Authors

Language

  • en

Usage metrics

    Social Policy - Journal Articles

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC