Call for papers for the 1st “Home and residential care in the pandemic” Conference, 3 – 4 January 2023

Keynote Speaker: TBA

Abstract Due Date: 4 December 2022

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This conference brings together academics and practitioners from a wide variety of fields, for a collaborative, multidisciplinary exploration of the issues and challenges of the pandemic for home and residential care.  Abstracts are peer-reviewed. Themes and issues for the conference include, but are not limited to:

 

Stream A:       Residential and family caregiving

The pandemic created extraordinary challenges for residential care. Assisted living and group facilities weathered lock-downs, and many attendant challenges. Staff and residents were hard hit by emergency care and transportation, cooking, cleaning, exercise, shopping, visitors, stress, sleep and addiction. Families and friends were separated, palliative care made more difficult. Papers might explore home or institutional care problems, preparedness and safety measures, employment, attrition, budget, relationships, mental health, the use of screen time and other communication technologies, among many. How can we use the Covid-19 experience to plan for the next pandemic? During the current pandemic, many families have provided care to older or vulnerable family members who would otherwise live in assisted care facilities, or receive other forms of support. They have  balanced family needs, caring, disability, cognitive impairments or dementia, illness, employment, the closure of support facilities and services, at a time of reduced financial security. What have we learned from this experience, that help families prepare for the next pandemic?

 

Stream B:       Caring and communication

The communication links and needs between carer, residential homes, and the many offices, local and national governments, services and suppliers they must interact with, are numerous. Communication may be spoken, written, or visual. What are the demands and the difficulties, in a pandemic? What has the experience been, and what lessons have been learned?  We welcome papers using discourse analysis, or other linguistics approaches, in analysing these questions. We also welcome experience narratives from people who have been unpaid carers in their personal and family lives, as well as experience narratives from those working professionally, administratively or as clinicians and practitioners, in home and care. What was the experience like? What were the problems? What were the communication issues?  For more information on putting together an experience narrative, please see here.

 

Stream C:         Prisons, parole and probation

Covid-19 has shown prisons to be dangerous and unsanitary. Prisoners and officers face overcrowding, inability to social distance, problems getting masks and PPE, little access to testing, and few resources to handle outbreaks. Prisoners often do not have proper food, clean water and basic healthcare, and experience coercion and self-harm. Those released experience stress, anxiety and sleep disorders, due to the exceptional challenges in gaining employment at this time. Officers must handle intensified violence among inmates, creating unsafe working conditions. Parole officers are handling backlogs in the courts, counselling and addiction testing systems, with increases in the numbers of parolees unable to find food, housing, employment and a support network. Similarly, people on probation cannot get required drugs testing, or attend support programs, training or counselling. Alcohol-related and other lower-level offenses have increased among the public during the pandemic, creating a heavy workload and distractions for officers, who must now hold virtual meetings, and manage supervision and process cases digitally. What have we learned, about managing the criminal justice system, in a time of pandemic? What are the issues? Best practices?

 

Stream D:          Data analytics and the pandemic

In order to explore these issues among officers and people within these systems, we are soliciting research cooperation from academics and researchers, social workers, clinical practitioners, teachers, administrators and others. These papers use data from structured interview questions, and evaluate this data with sentiment analysis software. Conference participants interested in cooperating with this effort will publish papers in a journal special issue with HEDRA advisory board members.  If you are interested in this, please click here.

 

The conference welcomes abstracts from academics and researchers working in linguistics, medicine and healthcare, social work and psychology, public health and education, as well as in interdisciplinary and inter-professional fields, and others. We also welcome experience narratives, case studies, and situation reports from members of the public, people working in any related field, and specialists. You can find more information on this here. Participants will be able to watch a plenary session, and participate in a live-stream roundtable, and a conference roundtable discussions.

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