Optimizing Virtual Health to Empower Caregivers: Setting an intersectional research agenda

Health Research BC is providing matching funds for this project, which is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Winter 2023 ICS Planning and Dissemination Grant – Supporting & Strengthening the Health Workforce stream.

This project builds from relationships in BC to develop a national network of virtual healthcare and caregiving researchers, practitioners, and decisionmakers to explore opportunities for collaboration. The project is led by Dr. Julia Smith, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser and lead for Health and Social Inequities team at the Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics and Society. Co-principal investigators include Lindsay Hedden, an Assistant Professor in FHS at SFU and Scientific Director of the BC SUPPORT Unit, and Andrew Sixsmith, a Professor in Gerontology and Director of the Science, Technology and Research (STAR) Institute at SFU. The team includes three trainees: Becky White (PhD student, Gerontology), Alice Murage (PhD Student, FHS) and Simran Purewal (MSc Student, FHS). Megan MacPherson the Regional Lead, Research and Knowledge Translation, Virtual Health at the Fraser Health Authority joins the team as a knowledge user.

In Canada, over 75% of healthcare is provided by unpaid, informal caregivers. Despite the essential role of caregivers, they are rarely recognized as part of the health workforce and receive little support. Caregiving is structured by racial and gender norms, as well as economic inequities, as the majority of caregivers are women, many of them racialized and low income. Caregivers’ responsibilities directly impact their social determinants of health, forcing them to give up paid work, education, and community engagement opportunities, while contributing to increased isolation and stress. The increasing use of virtual care can have both positive and negative effects on caregivers.

The goal of this project is to develop a research agenda focused on identifying structural inequities experienced by caregivers and virtual care service delivery solutions that empower caregivers to provide quality care while supporting their own well-being and reducing social, economic and health costs.
Research activities in BC include individual stakeholder consultations, an environmental scan and a workshop. Outputs from the above activities will be brought together to co-develop a participatory research agenda around developing virtual care solutions that empower caregivers.