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. 2020 Jul;60(1):e66-e69.
doi: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.04.006. Epub 2020 Apr 10.

The Family Caregiving Crisis Meets an Actual Pandemic

Erin E Kent  1 , Katherine A Ornstein  2 , J Nicholas Dionne-Odom  3
Affiliations

The Family Caregiving Crisis Meets an Actual Pandemic

Erin E Kent et al. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic presents unique challenges to those who work with the seriously ill population, including both health care providers and the family caregivers providing unpaid care. We rely on this lay workforce as health care routinely transitions care to the home, and now more than ever, we are depending on them in the current pandemic. As palliative care and other health care providers become overwhelmed with patients critically ill with COVID-19, and routine care becomes delayed, we have a charge to recognize and work with family caregivers. Our commentary provides rationale for the need to focus on family caregivers and key considerations for how to include them in pandemic clinical decision making.

Keywords: COVID-19; Family caregivers; palliative and supportive care; pandemic.

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