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Doing time in care homes: insights into the experiences of care home residents in Germany during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2021

Miranda Leontowitsch*
Affiliation:
Interdisciplinary Ageing Research, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Frankfurt Forum of Interdisciplinary Ageing Research (FFIA), Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Frank Oswald
Affiliation:
Interdisciplinary Ageing Research, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Frankfurt Forum of Interdisciplinary Ageing Research (FFIA), Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Arthur Schall
Affiliation:
Department of Geriatric Medicine, Institute of General Practice and Frankfurt Forum of Interdisciplinary Ageing Research (FFIA), Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Johannes Pantel
Affiliation:
Department of Geriatric Medicine, Institute of General Practice and Frankfurt Forum of Interdisciplinary Ageing Research (FFIA), Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
*
*Corresponding author. Email: leontowitsch@em.uni-frankfurt.de

Abstract

Residents of care homes across the globe are affected by the spread of SARS-CoV-2 as they have been identified as a high-risk group and because they experienced strict social isolation regulations during the first wave of the pandemic. Social isolation of older people with poor physical and mental health is strongly associated with mental health problems and decreased life expectancy. Other research has shown that older people managed to adapt to the changes brought about by the pandemic and have linked this to the concept of resilience. The aim of this research project was to investigate how this applied to residents in care home settings during the first phases of the contact ban in Germany from sociology, developmental psychology and environmental gerontology perspectives, and to gain in-depth understanding of residents’ experiences. This paper draws on structured interview data collected from residents in two care homes during early June 2020 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The findings show that their experiences were shaped by three factors: care home settings and the approach of staff to handling the contact ban; biographical sense of resilience; and a hierarchy of life issues. The findings highlight the importance of locally specific response mechanisms in care homes, agency and belonging of residents despite health-related limitations and the importance of a critical (gendered) lens on understanding their experiences.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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