Dying in residential care homes during the early COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative interview study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, care homes (long-term care facilities) globally were severely impacted in many ways, including end-of-life care and death of residents. They experienced significantly elevated mortality rates amongst residents, compounded by restrictions on support from external healthcare and specialist palliative care providers. Family access to dying residents was often severely restricted. This paper explores experiences of deaths, dying and end-of-life care in care homes during the first year of the pandemic (Spring 2020-2021).

Methods

As part of a wider study of experiences in care homes in Northern England during the early pandemic, we conducted semi-structured interviews with care home staff (16), residents (3), family members (5) and health

SUBMITTER: Preston N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11854402 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature