Family caregivers provide unpaid care and are an important part of the healthcare system. They play an essential role in supporting their family members and others close to them. We would like to learn more about the health and well-being of unpaid caregivers as men and women from various racial and ethnic populations. This kind of study is lacking in Canada, and we hope to gather important information from unpaid caregivers to make recommendations for unpaid caregiver policies/guidelines, supports, and interventions to improve unpaid caregiver well-being across various racial and ethnic populations in Canada.
Research Goal. The impact of the intersections of race and ethnicity, sex, age and gender along with unpaid care work and caregivers’ health and well-being is unknown. The aim of this study is to describe the inequities of caregiver well-being across the intersections of race and ethnicity, sex, age and gender using a explanatory sequential mixed methods study design.
A rapid integrated mixed methods systematic review described the mental health and well-being of unpaid caregivers during coronavirus outbreaks (Phase 1). Only 38 (27%) of the 139 studies identified in our review reported race and ethnicity (one was from Canada) and 95% of the participants were White. The Phase 2a cross-sectional survey described the observed inequities in caregiver well-being across the intersections of race and ethnicity, sex, age, and gender. We aim to conduct interviews in Phase 2b to explore caregiving experiences and to examine the broader contexts of fair/poor and good/excellent well-being in unpaid caregivers. The RAND/PPMD patient-centeredness method will be used to make recommendations for intervention development in Phase 3. All phases of this research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
For more information, visit www.unpaidcaregivers.ca
