Caregiving Through the Pandemic: Exploring the Impacts of COVID-19 on Caregivers and Their Caregiving Experiences

Abstract In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, many caregivers have been tasked with a unique role; not only to keep themselves safe and healthy, but also to protect and find new ways to aid their care recipients, many of whom are older adults at relatively high risk for severe complications from COVID-19. These challenging circumstances have driven caregivers to quickly adapt as they continue to manage their personal lives and caregiving responsibilities. Utilizing three waves of survey data from the MIT AgeLab Caregiver Panel, this presentation will examine the attitudes, experiences and worries of family caregivers at several time points along the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as caregivers’ preparations and coping behaviors along the way. Differences between caregiving situations will also be discussed.


CAREGIVING THROUGH TURBULENT TIMES: FINDINGS FROM THE MIT AGELAB'S LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF FAMILY CAREGIVERS Chair: Julie Miller Discussant: Julie Miller
Nearly one in five Americans is an unpaid family caregiver, and the need for family caregivers is projected to grow over the next several decades in the face of longer lifespans (AARP 2020). Yet the increasing centrality of family caregivers for providing care to an aging population highlights two knowledge gaps: first, the degree and experience of burden and stress caregivers manage around balancing care with other family and work responsibilities; and second, a lack of knowledge about the caregiver journey and the microtasks of care, including how caregivers leverage -or not -different tools, technologies and resources to support the care they provide. To develop a deeper understanding of these questions and others, the MIT AgeLab has built a research panel of over 1200 caregivers providing care to another adult family member. This symposium will present findings from the MIT AgeLab Caregiver Panel, including: 1) an examination of the extent to which family caregivers identify as such and how they feel about their roles; 2) how family caregivers experienced the COVID-19 pandemic both personally and around the care they provide; 3) caregivers' use of and attitudes toward technology to support the care they provide; and 4) what caregivers identify as their key unmet needs. The session will include a facilitated discussion around the intersection of COVID-19 with caregivers' technology use, experience of caregiving, and future needs, as well as to identify additional research questions and directions for future research with the MIT AgeLab Caregiver Panel.

CAREGIVERS' LANGUAGE AND EMOTIONS AROUND CARE Lisa D'Ambrosio, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Caregiving encompasses a range of roles and activities, but not all people providing care identify as "caregivers." Understanding the vocabulary and emotions that caregivers have should first, contribute to an understanding of caregiving and caregivers per se, and second, aid in communicating with them more effectively. Analysis of survey data from members of the MIT AgeLab Caregiver Panel shows variance in self-identification as caregivers and in language and emotions around caregiving, reflecting diversity in the care experience, but consensus around the core concept of a caregiver. This presentation will report on how caregivers' relationships, gender and care tasks affect their language and identify a caregiver experience-identity gap: a space between what caregivers do and what they report. We highlight how an understanding of caregivers' experiences of what they do -as opposed to a catalog of tasks they do -may be more important for understanding their experience of strain.

TECHNOLOGIES AND SERVICES TO SUPPORT CARE: CAREGIVERS' EXPERIENCES AND PERSPECTIVES Chaiwoo Lee, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Technologies developed to make life easier for the general population -including smart home products, internetenabled services, communication platforms, and health management systems -also have the potential to assist individuals who provide care to loved ones. While caregivers may be eager users of technology to support their responsibilities, some technologies remain untapped resources. An in-depth survey conducted with the MIT AgeLab Caregiver Panel around attitudes toward and use of technology for themselves and for caregiving showed that while caregivers use a wide range of technologies for themselves, their use for caregiving is limited. However, while caregivers did not universally use technologies or services to support the care they provided, those who did so generally reported positive feelings about their use. This presentation will report on technology experiences -including perceived usefulness, ease of use and integration, impacts, and overall satisfactionamong caregivers of various characteristics and conditions.

CAREGIVING THROUGH THE PANDEMIC: EXPLORING THE IMPACTS OF COVID-19 ON CAREGIVERS AND THEIR CAREGIVING EXPERIENCES Alexa Balmuth, MIT AgeLab, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, many caregivers have been tasked with a unique role; not only to keep themselves safe and healthy, but also to protect and find new ways to aid their care recipients, many of whom are older adults at relatively high risk for severe complications from COVID-19.
These challenging circumstances have driven caregivers to quickly adapt as they continue to manage their personal lives and caregiving responsibilities. Utilizing three waves of survey data from the MIT AgeLab Caregiver Panel, this presentation will examine the attitudes, experiences and worries of family caregivers at several time points along the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as caregivers' preparations and coping behaviors along the way. Differences between caregiving situations will also be discussed.