Staffs' experiences and strategies to maintain care for individuals with intellectual disabilities living in supported living facilities during the Covid-19 pandemic

Background

We explored the experiences of staff working in Norwegian community-based living facilities, caring for people with intellectual disabilities during the Covid-19 pandemic, and what self-regulatory strategies staff used to maintain health and care service delivery and contribute to organisational resilience.

Methods

A qualitative design was utilized. Data were collected from September 2021 to April 2022 with individual and focus group interviews. In this study, 25 staff members participated. Thematic analysis was conducted.

Findings

Five main themes were identified regarding the experiences of staff during the pandemic: Lockdown of facilities, social isolation of residents, lack of health follow-up, high sick leave rates and communication challenges. Only some of the strategies to mitigate pandemic-related challenges were based on current Norwegian infection control guidelines. Some strategies were successful while others were not and some were negligent and challenged the delivery of health and care services for the residents.

Conclusions

Our study shows that people with intellectual disabilities living in the community-based living facilities were subjected to human rights violations and violations of the Norwegian infection control law. This was caused by a lack of several important organisational qualities in the facilities.