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. 2021 Sep 23;18(19):10010.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph181910010.

A Tale of Two Solitudes: Loneliness and Anxiety of Family Caregivers Caring in Community Homes and Congregate Care

Sharon Anderson  1 , Jasneet Parmar  1   2 , Bonnie Dobbs  1   3 , Peter George J Tian  1
Affiliations

A Tale of Two Solitudes: Loneliness and Anxiety of Family Caregivers Caring in Community Homes and Congregate Care

Sharon Anderson et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

We surveyed 604 family caregivers residing in the province of Alberta to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on anxiety, loneliness, and care work. We assessed anxiety with the Six-Item State Anxiety Scale and loneliness with the DeJong-Gierveld Loneliness Scale. The COVID-19 pandemic created two contexts giving rise to feelings of solitude for family caregivers. Family caregivers of Albertans living in private community homes were overwhelmed with caregiving needs while those caring for Albertans living in congregate settings were restricted from caregiving. The results indicated that before the COVID-19 pandemic, 31.7% of family caregivers were anxious and 53.5% were lonely. The proportions of those who were anxious rose to 78.8% and lonely to 85.9% during the pandemic. The qualitative responses of family caregivers connected being overwhelmed with care work either in community homes or as the designated essential caregiver in congregate living settings, as well as being unable to care in congregate care settings, with anxiety and loneliness. The caregivers reporting improvements in their health and relationships with care-receivers credited spending time with the receiver doing pleasant activities together, rather than purely performing onerous care tasks. Policymakers need to consider organizing health and community services to ensure family caregivers are not overwhelmed with care tasks or excluded from caring in congregate care.

Keywords: COVID-19; anxiety; carers; family caregivers; loneliness.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funder had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Pre-COVID-19 care work by receiver’s residence.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Proportion of caregivers providing more, equivalent, or less care by receiver residence during COVID-19.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Caregiver’s Self-rated Changes in Physical Health.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Caregiver’s Self-rated Changes in Mental Health.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Mean anxiety by receiver’s residence.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Mean loneliness by receivers’ residence.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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