Informal Caregiving and Disaster Risk Reduction:A Scoping Review

• 作者: Christina J.Pickering Maya Dancey Karen Paik Tracey O'Sullivan
• 来源期刊: 国际灾害风险科学学报（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2021,（2）
• 所属期刊栏目: ARTICLES
• 页码范围: 169-187
• 页数: 19页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

Informal caregivers are a population currently in the shadows of disaster risk reduction (DRR), and yet essential to the provision of healthcare services. This scoping review explored the literature to understand issues related to informal caregiving and promising practices to support resilience for disasters. Following guidelines for scoping review as outlined by Tricco et al. (2016), relevant publications were identified from five major databases—Medline, Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus. Relevant studies referenced informal caregiving and dis-asters for a variety of population groups including children, people with disabilities or chronic illnesses, and older adults. Studies were excluded if they discussed formal caregiving services (for example, nursing), lacked rele-vance to disasters, or had insufficient discussion of infor-mal caregiving. Overall, 21 articles met the inclusion criteria and were fully analyzed. Five themes were identi-fied: (1) the need for education and training in DRR; (2) stressors around medication and supply issues; (3) factors affecting the decision-making process in a disaster; (4) barriers leading to disaster-related problems; and (5) fac-tors promoting resilience. Recommended areas of strategic action and knowledge gaps are discussed. Many informal caregivers do not feel adequately prepared for disasters. Given the important role of informal caregivers in healthcare provision, preparedness strategies are essential to support community resilience for those requiring per-sonal care support. By understanding and mobilizing assets to support the resilience of informal caregivers, we also support the resilience of the greater healthcare system and the community, in disaster contexts.