COVID-19 Community Care Facilities, SingHealth, Singapore
Speech Therapy Department, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore.
BMJ Open. 2021 Mar 19;11(3):e045949. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045949.
The health, psychological and socioeconomic vulnerabilities of low-wage migrant workers have been magnified in the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in high-income receiving countries such as Singapore. We aimed to understand migrant worker concerns and coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic to address these during the crisis and inform on comprehensive support needed after the crisis.
In-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out with migrant workers diagnosed with COVID-19. The participants were recruited from a COVID-19 mass quarantine facility in Singapore through a purposive sampling approach. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis performed to derive themes in their collective experience during the crisis.
Three theme categories were derived from 27 interviews: migrant worker concerns during COVID-19, coping during COVID-19 and priorities after COVID-19. Major stressors in the crisis included the inability to continue providing for their families when work is disrupted, their susceptibility to infection in crowded dormitories, the shock of receiving the COVID-19 diagnosis while asymptomatic, as well as the isolating conditions of the quarantine environment. The workers coped by keeping in contact with their families, accessing healthcare, keeping updated with the news and continuing to practise their faith and religion. They looked forward to a return to normalcy after the crisis with keeping healthy and having access to healthcare as new priorities.
We identified coping strategies employed by the workers in quarantine, many of which were made possible through the considered design of care and service delivery in mass quarantine facilities in Singapore. These can be adopted in the set-up of other mass quarantine facilities around the world to support the health and mental well-being of those quarantined. Our findings highlight the importance of targeted policy intervention for migrant workers, in areas such as housing and working environments, equitable access to healthcare, and social protection during and after this crisis.
在 COVID-19 大流行期间，低薪移民工人的健康、心理和社会经济脆弱性加剧，尤其是在新加坡等高收入接受国。我们旨在了解移民工人在 COVID-19 大流行期间的关注点和应对策略，以便在危机期间解决这些问题，并为危机后提供全面支持提供信息。
对已被诊断患有 COVID-19 的移民工人进行了深入的半结构化访谈。参与者通过目的抽样方法从新加坡的一个 COVID-19 大规模隔离设施中招募。访谈逐字记录，并进行主题分析，以得出他们在危机期间集体经历的主题。
从 27 次访谈中得出了三个主题类别：COVID-19 期间移民工人的关注点、COVID-19 期间的应对以及 COVID-19 后的优先事项。危机中的主要压力源包括工作中断时无法继续养家糊口、在拥挤的宿舍中易感染、在无症状时收到 COVID-19 诊断的震惊，以及隔离环境的隔离条件。工人通过与家人保持联系、获得医疗保健、了解最新消息以及继续实践信仰和宗教来应对。他们期待着危机后的正常生活，将保持健康和获得医疗保健作为新的优先事项。
我们确定了工人在隔离中采用的应对策略，其中许多策略是通过在新加坡大规模隔离设施中精心设计的护理和服务提供实现的。这些策略可以在全球其他大规模隔离设施的设置中采用，以支持被隔离者的健康和心理健康。我们的研究结果强调了针对移民工人的有针对性的政策干预的重要性，例如住房和工作环境、公平获得医疗保健以及在这场危机期间和之后的社会保护。
