Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Swansea, UK.
School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
J Appl Res Intellect Disabil. 2020 Nov;33(6):1523-1533. doi: 10.1111/jar.12811. Epub 2020 Sep 21.
The measures implemented to manage the COVID-19 pandemic have been shown to impair mental health. This problem is likely to be exacerbated for carers.
Informal carers (mainly parents) of children and adults with intellectual disabilities, and a comparison group of parents of children without disabilities, completed an online questionnaire. Almost all the data were collected while strict lockdown conditions were in place.
Relative to carers of children without intellectual disability, carers of both children and adults with intellectual disability had significantly greater levels of a wish fulfilment coping style, defeat/entrapment, anxiety, and depression. Differences were 2-3 times greater than reported in earlier pre-pandemic studies. Positive correlations were found between objective stress scores and all mental health outcomes. Despite their greater mental health needs, carers of those with intellectual disability received less social support from a variety of sources.
The greater mental health needs of carers in the context of lesser social support raises serious concerns. We consider the policy implications of these findings.
应对 COVID-19 大流行所采取的措施已被证明会损害心理健康。对于护理人员来说，这个问题可能会更加严重。
患有智力残疾的儿童和成人的非正式护理人员（主要是父母）以及没有残疾儿童的父母比较组完成了在线问卷调查。几乎所有数据都是在严格的封锁条件下收集的。
与没有智力残疾儿童的护理人员相比，儿童和成人智力残疾护理人员的愿望达成应对方式、挫败/困境、焦虑和抑郁程度显著更高。与大流行前的早期研究相比，差异高出 2-3 倍。客观压力得分与所有心理健康结果之间存在正相关关系。尽管他们有更大的心理健康需求，但智障人士的护理人员从各种来源获得的社会支持较少。
在社会支持较少的情况下，护理人员的心理健康需求更大，这引起了严重关注。我们考虑了这些发现对政策的影响。
