Exploring the effects of COVID-19 outbreak control policies on services offered to people experiencing homelessness
department or school: Medicine, Faculty of
department or school: Non UBC
department or school: Pediatrics, Department of
data provider: DSpace
identifier citation: BMC Public Health. 2024 Oct 14;24(1):2804
contributor: Children's Hospital (Vancouver, B.C.). Vaccine Evaluation Center
rights copyright: The Author(s)
creator: Davis, Alexa J.
creator: Halperin, Donna M.
creator: Condran, Brian R.
creator: Kervin, Melissa S.
creator: Di Castri, Antonia M.
creator: Salter, Katherine L.
creator: Bettinger, Julie A.
creator: Parsons, Janet A.
creator: Halperin, Scott A.
issued: 2024-11-13T22:44:41Z
issued: 2024-10-14
description: Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent implementation of public health policies exacerbated multiple intersecting systemic inequities, including homelessness. Housing is a key social determinant of health that played a significant part in the front-line defence against COVID-19, posing challenges for service providers working with people experiencing homelessness (PEH). Public health practitioners and not-for-profit organizations (NFPs) had to adapt existing COVID-19 policies and implement novel measures to prevent the spread of disease within congregate settings, including shelters. It is essential to share the perspectives of service providers working with PEH and their experiences implementing policies to prepare for future public health emergencies and prevent service disruptions. Methods: In this qualitative case study, we explored how service providers in the non-profit sector interpreted, conceptualized, and implemented COVID-19 public health outbreak control policies in Nova Scotia. We interviewed 11 service providers between September and December 2020. Using thematic analysis, we identified patterns and generated themes. Local, provincial, and national policy documents were useful to situate our findings within the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and contextualize participants’ experiences. Results: Implementing policies in the context of homelessness was difficult for service providers, leading to creative temporary solutions, including pop-up shelters, a dedicated housing isolation phone line, comfort stations, and harm reduction initiatives, among others. There were distinct rural challenges to navigating the pandemic, which stemmed from technology limitations, lack of public transportation, and service closures. This case study illustrates the importance of flexible and context-specific policies required to support PEH and mitigate the personal and professional impact on service providers amid a public health emergency. Innovative service…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/89666
note: R E S E A R C H Open Access© The Author(s) 2024. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Davis et al. BMC Public Health (2024) 24:2804 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-20312-3BMC Public Health*Correspondence:Alexa J. DavisAlexa.Davis@dal.caFull list of author information is available at the end of the articleAbstractBackground The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent implementation of public health policies exacerbated multiple intersecting systemic inequities, including homelessness. Housing is a key social determinant of health that played a significant part in the front-line defence against COVID-19, posing challenges for service providers working with people experiencing homelessness (PEH). Public health practitioners and not-for-profit organizations (NFPs) had to adapt existing COVID-19 policies and implement novel measures to prevent the spread of disease within congregate settings, including shelters. It is essential to share the perspectives of service providers working with PEH and their experiences implementing policies to prepare for future public health emergencies and prevent service disruptions.Methods In this qualitative case study, we explored how service pr…
has type: Article
spatial: Canada
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0447274
language: eng
peer review status: Reviewed
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: BioMed Central
publisher DOI: 10.1186/s12889-024-20312-3
rights: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
scholar level: Faculty
scholar level: Researcher
subject: Non-profit organizations
subject: Public Health Outbreak Control Policies
subject: Rural services
subject: Qualitative research
subject: Pandemics
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89666