Effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic on healthcare and community‐based service use for people living with dementia: Perspectives from dementia care professionals

Background Dementia care and healthcare delivery systems have changed substantially as a result of the COVID‐19 pandemic (Wang et al., 2020). Experts have identified a number of barriers to health care access for people living with dementia (PLWD) during the pandemic, including difficulty implementing telemedicine practices, discontinuation of home care services, increased caregiver burden and financial hardship (Brown et al., 2020; Greenberg et al., 2020). Assessment of dementia care providers’ perceptions of the change in use of healthcare and community‐based services by PLWD is needed to identify gaps and to improve care for this vulnerable population during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Methods We designed an online survey asking about changes to PLWD and caregiver use of 14 healthcare and community‐based services during the COVID‐19 pandemic and about 15 factors that may have contributed to these changes. The survey was distributed to a network of dementia care professionals across the state of Wisconsin between August 28 th and October 9 th , 2020. Result A total of 102 individuals completed the survey. Most respondents worked in the Wisconsin Department of Health Services dementia care specialist system, were employed by Aging and Disability Resource Centers (53.5%), identified as female, White race and worked in rural settings. Services most frequently reported as no longer in use included senior center programs, adult day programs, and companion/friendly visitor services, while meal delivery was reported as having increased use by PLWD. Factors identified most frequently as barriers to service use included changes in access to caregiver support/respite services, access to natural supports, compassion fatigue/caregiver burnout and both knowledge of and access to technology/virtual tools. Conclusion The results highlight the increased demand for certain services like meal delivery and the need to find alternatives to in‐person enrichment/recreational and caregiver respite opportunities such as senior center and adult day programs that are being used less. Access to and knowledge of technology and increased stress on caregivers and support systems were identified as some of the more frequent barriers to service use, thus allocating resources towards these areas may be particularly impactful towards improving service use for PLWD during the COVID‐19 pandemic.