TY - JOUR

T1 - Living in a care home during COVID-19: A case study of one person living with dementia

AU - Davies Abbott, Ian

AU - Jones, Catrin Hedd

AU - Windle, Gill

PY - 2021/12/10

Y1 - 2021/12/10

N2 - Purpose – The paper aims to understand the lived experience of a person living with dementia in a care home during the COVID-19 pandemic. It responds to the absence in research of the voices of people with dementia living in care homes during the pandemic.Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a single case study design applied thematic analysis to semi-structured interview data to discover the experiences of one person living with dementia in a care home during a period of lockdown.Findings – Five themes reveal how the participant responded to the practical and emotional challenges of the pandemic: (1) autonomy; (2) fears; (3) keeping connected; (4) keeping safe and (5) other people living with dementia. These themes highlight the participant’s ability to adapt, accept and dispute lockdown restrictions, revealing considerable insight into their situation.Research limitations/implications – The pandemic has restricted access to care homes, which informed the single case study design. This approach to the research may restrict the generalisability of the findings. Other researchers are encouraged to include the voices of people with dementia living in care homes in further studies.Practical implications – Implications for practice, presented in this paper, promote quality psychosocial approaches when healthcare workers engage with people living with dementia during periods of restricted activity.Originality/value – Unlike other studies about the impact of the pandemic on care homes, this paper explores the experience of the pandemic in care homes from the perspective of a person living with dementia.

AB - Purpose – The paper aims to understand the lived experience of a person living with dementia in a care home during the COVID-19 pandemic. It responds to the absence in research of the voices of people with dementia living in care homes during the pandemic.Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a single case study design applied thematic analysis to semi-structured interview data to discover the experiences of one person living with dementia in a care home during a period of lockdown.Findings – Five themes reveal how the participant responded to the practical and emotional challenges of the pandemic: (1) autonomy; (2) fears; (3) keeping connected; (4) keeping safe and (5) other people living with dementia. These themes highlight the participant’s ability to adapt, accept and dispute lockdown restrictions, revealing considerable insight into their situation.Research limitations/implications – The pandemic has restricted access to care homes, which informed the single case study design. This approach to the research may restrict the generalisability of the findings. Other researchers are encouraged to include the voices of people with dementia living in care homes in further studies.Practical implications – Implications for practice, presented in this paper, promote quality psychosocial approaches when healthcare workers engage with people living with dementia during periods of restricted activity.Originality/value – Unlike other studies about the impact of the pandemic on care homes, this paper explores the experience of the pandemic in care homes from the perspective of a person living with dementia.

KW - COVID-19

KW - Care homes

KW - Case study

KW - Dementia

KW - Lived experience

KW - Thematic analysis

U2 - 10.1108/QAOA-02-2021-0024

DO - 10.1108/QAOA-02-2021-0024

M3 - Article

VL - 22

SP - 147

EP - 158

JO - Quality in Ageing and Older Adults

JF - Quality in Ageing and Older Adults

SN - 1471-7794

IS - 3-4

ER -