King's College London

‘En Route to Recovery’ (ER2R) focused on employees whose jobs were fundamentally changed by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly those providing individual care in both organisational and home settings.

Care workers’ positions were already insecure prior to COVID-19, but the high demands placed on them during the pandemic led to increased workloads, greater virus exposure, and heightened stress. This had significant consequences on employees’ physical and mental health, which were further worsened by low salaries and the increased cost-of-living.

As a result, the social care sector faced a deepening crisis in both recruitment and retention of staff, exacerbating a myriad of pre-existing challenges for those on ‘the front lines’ of care provision.

Partners

We worked closely with teams in South Africa, Finland, and Canada to complete a cross-cultural analysis as part of this project. These teams conducted similar specific national projects and collaborated throughout the research process to explore overarching pressures in care work worldwide, and strengthen our findings and recommendations.

The key research questions for this international collaboration were:

• What were the major challenges that care workers in vulnerable or precarious situations encountered during the pandemic?
• What intersectional inequalities were amplified as people narrated their experiences in care work throughout the pandemic?
• How could the inequalities experienced by care workers in vulnerable or precarious situations be addressed to improve resilience, human sustainability, and workplace well-being?
• What care-related lessons can be found through narratives across different global contexts that could support recovery from the pandemic and the renewal of care provision?

Find out more about this partnership on the University of Helsinki blog.