Older adult's experiences during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Aotearoa New Zealand: Diversity and change in long term disaster situations

The COVID-19 global pandemic has highlighted the morbidity and mortality risks of older adults as well as their heterogeneity and resilience. The immediate need to address psychosocial and health issues among this age group is driven by global concerns about the growing number of disaster occurrences, the growing ageing population, and widening inequalities. Using an inductive analysis of written comments about their experiences by 1,400 older people in the second year of the pandemic in Aotearoa New Zealand, we found that responses to the pandemic and government actions had fractured as different groups of older adults felt neglected or wronged by the centralised response. Negative themes of anxiety and fear describe aspects of vulnerability in older adult's lives and point to issues for repair and protection in pandemic situations. Positive themes describe the resources that people drew on to maintain their wellbeing in a lengthy disaster. Drawing on theorising around conservation of resources and disaster communitas, our analysis shows that across a long-term disaster situation, resilience may be best sustained by drawing on local support systems and enabling community volunteers. Institutional responses and planning must include and empower grass roots groups who are better placed to recognise and respond to the resource needs of their own communities.

Keywords

Ageing, Conservation of resources, Disaster communitas, Resilience, Vulnerability

Citation

Stephens C, Uekusa S, Breheny M. (2024). Older adult's experiences during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Aotearoa New Zealand: Diversity and change in long term disaster situations. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. 100.

URI

https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/70063

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