Optimizing the resilience to COVID-19 of long-term care facilities serving linguistic-cultural minorities in Manitoba, New Brunswick and Quebec: evaluation and co-construction of innovative approaches to optimize the social participation of families and caregivers in the challenges of potential outbreaks

In Canada, 81% of deaths from the first wave of COVID-19 occurred in long-term care facilities (LTCFs). Added to this heavy toll is the threat of a second wave, which has already begun in several jurisdictions. Public health measures that reduce contact with professionals, families and caregivers are walling in LTCFs. This particular context, which includes restricting visits, is deepening the isolation and loneliness of older adults (EAs), particularly in minority contexts. These collateral effects that make EAs vulnerable, and which were not anticipated in the response, are now being strongly experienced by LTCFs. This unique and alarming situation requires LTCFs to develop promising practices for the present and future outbreaks and to ensure the maintenance of social capital between EAs and their families and caregivers, as well as with staff, to break isolation and loneliness. In Quebec, one third of COVID-19 infections have affected healthcare staff. Long-term care homes, the quintessential setting for seasonal outbreaks (e.g., influenza), already operate with insufficient staff, exhausted and afraid of infection. The vast majority of long-term care homes do not integrate digital technologies optimally to support staff. No one was prepared for the challenge of COVID-19, but the innovations implemented to date indicate pockets of success, winning practices that our project will capitalize on, by focusing on linguistic-cultural minorities (English-speaking long-term care homes in Quebec and French-speaking long-term care homes in Manitoba and New Brunswick). Indeed, few initiatives concerning COVID-19 are reported for these populations and the situation could be more difficult for PAs in linguistic-cultural minority contexts who usually encounter challenges in accessing the health system. Given the very limited number of long-term care homes dedicated to these minority populations in the provinces, families and loved ones are often geographically far away, or even in other provinces of the country, digital solutions appear particularly relevant. Of the six strategic options, the project focuses on the presence of families (no. 6), as key partners in care and breaking loneliness. Subsidiarily, it involves components 2) prevention and 3) workforce. The goal of the project is to identify and implement best practices and promising policies and create a community of practice to mitigate the isolation and loneliness of PAs per and post COVID-19 to ensure safe and quality care in ELTCs.