The COVID-19 Pandemic and Older Adults Early Responses and Continuing Impacts

Introduction: Continuing Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Older Adults

Edward Alan Miller and Elizabeth Simpson

I. Flexibility and Innovation in Early Reponses

1.  A COVID-19-Dedicated Facility for the Care of Older Adults During a Health Emergency: An Italian Experience

Lucia Monici, Olivera Djuric, Anna Muraca, Camilla Verona, Eleonora Bergonzini, Francesco Venturelli, Marco Zanni, Massimo Vicentini, Paolo Giorgi Rossi, Patrizia Tegani, and Cristina Marchesi

2. Practicalities and Yield from Mass Swabbing for COVID-19 in Residential Care Facilities in the South of Ireland

Niamh Bambury, Peter M. Barrett, Janice Crompton, Mary T. O’Mahony, Margaret B. O’Sullivan, Deirdre E. Murray, Cliodhna Foley Nolan, and Anne Sheahan

3. Implementing a Telehealth Support Tool for Community-Dwelling Older Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Investigation of Provider Experiences

Lise Dassieu, Elise Develay, Olivier Beauchet, Amélie Quesnel-Vallée, Claire Godard-Sebillotte, Eric Tchouaket, Svetlana Puzhko, Sathya Karunananthan, Patrick Archambault, Cyrille Launay, Paul Holyoke, Caroline Sauriol, Kevin Galery, and Nadia Sourial

4. Meeting Older Adults’ Food Needs During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons and Challenges from Washington State
Callie Freitag, Ian Johnson, Clara Berridge, Carolyn M. Parsey, Magaly Ramirez, and Scott W. Allard

5. Social Service Providers’ Perceptions of Older Adults’ Food Access During COVID-19

Ashley L. Munger, Katherine E. Speirs, Stephanie K. Grutzmacher, and Mark Edwards

II. Ageism and Isolation

6. Toward Age-Friendly Policies: Using the Framework of Age-Friendliness to Evaluate the COVID-19 Measures from the Perspectives of Older People in the Netherlands

Elena Bendien, Miriam Verhage, Jolanda Lindenberg, and Tineke Abma

7. The Short and Long-Term Correlates of Change in Loneliness Status: The Role of Epidemic Control Measures During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Howard Litwin and Bracha Erlich

8. Older adults’ Experiences of Restrictive Measures During the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Southern Switzerland: Evidence from the Corona Immunitas Ticino Study

David Maciariello, Laurie Corna, Rebecca Amati, Emiliano Albanese, and Stefano Cavalli

9. The Impact of Public Health Restrictions in Residential Aged Care on Residents, Families, and Staff During COVID-19: Getting the Balance Right

Susan Thomas, Katarzyna Bolsewicz, Rachel Latta, Jacquie Hewitt, Julie Byles, and David Durrheim

10. Inconsistent and Arbitrary Age-Based Policies During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Omer Aloni and Liat Ayalon

11. The Impact of Age-Based COVID-19 Pandemic Regulations on Older People in Turkey: A Capability Approach

Gülçin Con Wright and Burcu Özdemir Ocaklı

12. Older people’s Contributions During the COVID-19 Pandemic Response

Merryn Gott, Janine Wiles, Tessa Morgan, Lisa Williams, Kathryn Morgan, Stella Black, Anne Koh, Elizabeth Fanueli, Jing Xu, Hetty Goodwin, Dihini Pilimatalawwe, and Tess Moeke-Maxwell

III. Long-Term Care and the Direct Care Workforce

13. Who Helped Long-Term Care Facilities and Who Did Not During COVID-19? A Survey of Administrators in Israel

Jiska Cohen-Mansfield and Guy Meschiany

14. Understanding Organizational Resilience of Care Homes for Older People During COVID-19 in China: A Qualitative Study with Post-Pandemic Policy Implications

Shiyu Lu and Wing Kit Chan

15. ‘Going Above and beyond’: Residential Aged Care Staff Experiences of Providing Care During the Changing Context of COVID-19

Jennifer White, Megan Vidler, Peter Murray, and David N Durrheim

16. “You Killed the Hospital, They Have No Place Left”: The Experience of Nursing Home Multidisciplinary Staff in Israel during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Sagit Lev and Pnina Dolberg

17. The Impact of Assisted Living Organizational Structure and Process Characteristics on Staff Absence During COVID-19

Carlyn E. Vogel, Debra Dobbs, Lindsay Peterson, Hongdao Meng, and Victor Molinari

18. COVID-19 Exacerbated Long-standing Challenges for the Home Care Workforce

Denise A. Tyler, Marie R. Squillace, Kristie A. Porter, Melissa Hunter, and William Haltermann

19. Nursing Home Oversight Trends During COVID-19 and the Current Survey Backlog in the United States

Robert J. Skinner and David G. Stevenson

IV. Disparities in Access and Experiences

20. Sociodemographic Factors and Adjustment of Daily Activities During the COVID-19 Pandemic – Findings from the SHARE Corona Survey

Jenny Olofsson, Filip Fors Connolly, Gunnar Malmberg, Maria Josefsson, and Mikael Stattin

21. Financial Consequences of COVID-19 in Germany: Living Standards of Older People During the First Year of the Pandemic

Laura Romeu Gordo, Julia Simonson, and Alberto Lozano Alcántara

22. Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Effects of COVID-19 on Employment Disruption and Financial Precarity

Rebekah Carpenter, Dawn C. Carr, Qiuchang (Katy) Cao, and Amanda Sonnega

23. Impact of the First-Wave COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Expenditure for Older Adults in China: Lessons from a Natural Experiment

Xiyuan Hu, Dianqi Yuan, Yuyu Zeng, and Chao Guo

24. Engagement and Advocacy of Community-Based Organizations Serving Older Adults in Native American, Rural, and Homeless Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Jarmin Yeh, Lyn Holley, Cassandra D. Ford, and M. Aaron Guest

25.  Predictors of Older Adults’ Attitudes Toward Various COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates

Filip Viskupič and David L. Wiltse

Biography

Edward Alan Miller is Professor and Chair of the Department of Gerontology, and a Fellow in the Gerontology Institute, Donna M. and Robert J. Manning College of Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Boston, and Adjunct Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice at the School of Public Health, Brown University. His research focuses on understanding the determinants and effects of public policies and practices affecting older adults in need of long-term services and supports. He is author/co-author/editor/co-editor of more than 153 journal articles, 21 book chapters, and 8 books. Dr. Miller is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and 2024 awardee of the Maxwell A. Pollack Award for Contributions of Healthy Aging, which recognizes an individual who has distinguished themselves by bridging the worlds of research, policy, and practice. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Aging & Social Policy.