COVID-19 pandemic and shutdowns have burdened caregivers, Pitt research finds

Worse mental and physical health, money worries, and problems accessing health care because of COVID-19 are among some of the pandemic-related hardships reported by people who care for disabled family members, according to new research from the University of Pittsburgh.

The survey of more than 3,500 family caregivers and non-caregivers was released late last week from Pitt’s National Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Family Support and the University Center for Social and Urban Research.

Caregivers were “more likely than non-caregivers to be experiencing social isolation, anxiety and depression, fatigue, sleep disturbance, financial hardship and food insecurity,” the survey found.

One of the caregivers interviewed was Michelle Sipple of Gibsonia. She works full-time, and she and her husband have three children, one of whom has a mild intellectual disability, a traumatic brain injury and an autoimmune disorder.

The loss of her son’s routines, seeing friends at school and the end of in-person education in favor of online learning has been very difficult and stressful, she said.

“It came to a really bad day where the whole house pretty much had a meltdown. You just have to pick yourself up the next day and say, ‘What are the priorities?’ ” That has unfortunately meant less focus on schoolwork, she said.

“I don’t know how to even put this into words. This whole summer has been, I don’t want to use the word ‘ruined.’ But thinking about this next school year and how this is all going to play out, our mental health is teetering on disaster,” she said.

Among the findings by Pitt researchers:

• 43% of caregivers said their mental health was worse than before the pandemic (compared to 36% of non-caregivers)

• 27% of caregivers said their physical health was worse (compared to 17.6% of non-caregivers)

• 43% of caregivers said their finances are worse now than before the pandemic

• 31% of caregivers said their ability to access health care was worse than before the pandemic (compared to 25% of non-caregivers).

“The bottom line is … family caregivers reported consistently more negative effects than non-caregivers,” said Scott Beach, one of the center’s co-directors who led the study, which was released Thursday.

“The results were more intense than what I expected. COVID-19 is very stressful for everybody, but even more so for caregivers helping loved ones with additional needs,” he said.

Another caregiver interviewed by researchers was Henry Lenard, of Bellevue, who is caring for his son, who has severe autism, and his wife, who is battling stage IV breast cancer.

“I just wish people had a greater understanding of what we go through” as caregivers, he said.

“We are suffering, people are suffering, you can’t even put it into words,” said Ms. Sipple. “The impact of this pandemic on people with disabilities, it’s just been so understated. The social isolation is something that people just cannot understand.”

The center offers resources at caregiving.pitt.edu/resources/

Kate Giammarise: kgiammarise@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3909.

Source: Pittsburgh Post Gazette

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