Paper short abstract:

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people living in Long-Term Care homes have been subjected to long confinements and social isolation. This paper aims to explore coping strategies that care home residents have developed through interviews and group discussions elicited by their own photographs.

Paper long abstract:

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people living in Long-Term Care (LTC) institutions or homes have been subjected to long confinements and severe social isolation. Not only were they severely hit by COVID-19, but also by the consequences of these anti-COVID measures. Assessing them is the main objective of ResiCOVID-19, a project funded by the Catalan government to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on people living and working in Catalan care homes, as well as on their families. Drawing on the results of this project, this paper focuses on the coping strategies residents developed to deal with the disruptive consequences of these measures. The paper aims to approach them as resourceful agents that sought to counter the consequences of the measures, even challenge them, and not only as passive and vulnerable actors, victims of both the institution and the pandemic.

Thirty-six residents from 6 Long-term care homes in Catalonia (4 geriatric homes, 1 mental health home and 1 disability home) participated in the study: firstly, they were interviewed, secondly, they took pictures that represent their experience and coping strategies (assisted by the research team) and later, they engaged in group discussion elicited by the pictures.