The COVID-19 Pandemic and Older Adults

The COVID-19 pandemic posed a multi-faceted challenge to older adults and care institutions globally. Despite the policies aimed at protecting older adults from COVID-19, they bear the burden of risk. Some early efforts to protect them, often via extreme isolation measures yielded unanticipated health and psychosocial impacts. The rapid onset of the COVID-19 pandemic presented a multi-faceted challenge to older adults, carers, and care institutions globally. Despite a wide range of policies that achieved some success in protecgting older adults from serious illness and death from COVID-19, older adults continue to bear the burden of risk for these most severe outcomes. Additionally, some early efforts to protect older adults, often via extreme isolation measures both within care facilities and in the community, yielded unanticipated health and psychosocial impacts on older adults and care and service networks and revealed systemic ageism in health and social policies worldwide. This book compiles research conducted both during and after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic on the impacts of immediate response efforts, while delving into the longer-term differential effects across population subgroups and organizations. Four main areas examined in the volume’s 25 chapters: Flexibility and innovation in early responses; ageism and isolation; long-term care and the direct care workforce; and disparities in access and experiences. Governments, agencies, and aging services organizations will benefit from fully considering lessons learned and incorporating them into future emergency response efforts, accounting for similarities and differences in manifestations and consequences across different subpopulations and organization and policy contexts.