CaRegiving frOm A Distance (ROAD): home care in the future—flexible and nearby – multimethod qualitative study protocol

Abstract

Introduction: Demographic change in Germany is accompanied by a birth rate deficit and increasing life expectancy. One effect of the ageing population is an increase in people needing care, most of whom want to grow old in their homes and to be cared for there. At the same time, informal caregivers are a core resource in the German care system, but due to social changes, this resource is not endless. Processes of social change in German society will cause further erosion in the potential number of informal local caregivers. Therefore, it will be increasingly important to provide conditions so that individuals at a distance who support people needing care are actually able to do so. Distance caregiving is a broad field, posing questions of intergenerational and intragenerational solidarity and the balance between work, family and caring responsibilities. Systematic research is required into opportunities and limitations, including innovative technology, in the whole field of care arrangements over a distance. The demands of the different actors in the distance caregiving arrangement are not yet known and are the subject of our study.

Methods and analysis: This study will develop a model for distance caregiving. A qualitative multimethod research design (non-interventional study) will be adopted. The study will take place between September 2021 and August 2024. Participants will be selected by a purposeful sampling process. Phenomenological analysis will guide our data analysis. Data collected in this study will allow for triangulation, thereby increasing the trustworthiness of findings.

Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval for this study has been granted by the ethics committee of the Faculty of Medicine of the Charite, Universitatsmedizin Berlin (ID: EA1/371/21). Dissemination of the results will take place among the scientific community. Results will also be disseminated among the public and actors involved in healthcare and nursing care.