The Mental Health and Wellbeing of Unpaid Caregivers: An Intersectionality-Informed Mixed Methods Study

About 28% of Canadians are in unpaid caregiving roles and they are the backbone of the Canadian healthcare system. Unpaid caregivers provide 75% of care services at home. Unpaid caregiving can impact one's physical and mental wellbeing, finances, and ability to work outside the home and be paid. We received funding from CIHR for a rapid integrated mixed methods systematic review of the existing literature to determine the mental health status of unpaid caregivers during COVID-19 (Phase 1). Our results suggest unpaid caregivers are young, White, highly educated, married and female. They are stressed, anxious and depressed. However, these results really do not give us a clear picture of unpaid caregivers in Canada because 1 in 5 people in Canada is born elsewhere; the three largest racial and ethnic minority groups are South Asians, Chinese and Blacks - accounting for about 60% of the Canadian racial and ethnic populations. We also do not know about the mental health of unpaid caregivers who might be men, unmarried and less educated. By 2035, the annual unpaid caregiver contribution to the Canadian healthcare system is estimated to be $128 billion. We need to find out about the wellbeing of unpaid caregivers at the different intersections of race and ethnicity, age, sex and gender. We will continue to work with patient partners (i.e., unpaid caregivers) as investigators on our team to complete Phases 2 and 3 of our study. We will distribute a survey in Phase 2a, then invite a sub-group of unpaid caregivers with fair/poor and good/excellent wellbeing to an interview (Phase 2b). In the interview we will explore how race and ethnicity, sex, age, and gender intersect to affect unpaid caregiver's wellbeing. We will then have a virtual consensus meeting with unpaid caregivers and decision-makers to discuss what policies/guidelines and interventions need to be developed to improve unpaid caregiver's wellbeing. We are focusing on equity, diversity and inclusion.