COVID-19改变了我们关心的方式。学者们长期以来一直认为,护理通常需要接近,尤其是当涉及到照顾,with,和老年人。随着封锁和实施旨在遏制COVID-19传播的广泛公共卫生指南,如物理距离和就地庇护,当面护理实践变得越来越困难。然而,与飓风或其他自然灾害催化的灾难不同,在大流行期间,物理和通信基础设施基本完好无损。这种情况为将护理转移到数字空间开辟了可能性。在本文中,我们研究了加拿大和美国的老年人(65岁及以上)如何突然转向数字空间进行护理。我们的发现来自我们更大的混合方法研究,调查老年人的日常COVID-19大流行经历,孩子们,和青少年,检查脆弱性,迁移率,和能力。不仅老年人经常被描述为护理的接受者,但是他们通常(并且错误地)被同质化和定型为脆弱和不懂技术。探索老年人提供的方式,寻求,已收到,避免,并在大流行期间被拒绝护理,因此揭示了复杂的谈判,比赛,以及数字护理空间的解放可能性。我们对不同老年人的无障碍需求的关注是探索数字护理中交叉性问题的工具。我们描述了一系列数字护理实践,从远程医疗预约和基于应用程序的通信到基于网络的志愿服务和在线社交聚会。我们探索了几代人之间的数字通信和联系;在COVID-19大流行期间,这种通信的潜力是前所未有的,部分原因是数字通信选项的大量使用,如在线视频会议程序。我们讨论了通过数字架构和护理实践提供的可能性之间的不匹配,关系,需要,和老年人的欲望。借鉴女权主义护理理论,我们将老年人定位为数字护理的提供者和接受者,并解开他们的代理和脆弱性的交织。他们的创新,部分受到衰老过程中不同经验的刺激,大流行,孤独,joy,以及在数字领域中对谨慎的挫败感,为大流行期间和之后的包容性护理提出激进的做法和空间。这种护理的根本之处在于它是基于每天的,即使是平凡的,经常被忽略的元素,而不是科技公司开发的任何华而不实的(货币化的)创新。
COVID-19 changed the way we care. Scholars have long argued that care often requires proximity, especially when it comes to care for, with, and by older adults. With lockdowns and the imposition of widespread public health guidelines aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19, such as physically distancing and sheltering-in-place, in-person care practices became increasingly difficult. Yet, unlike disasters catalyzed by hurricanes or other natural hazards, physical and communications infrastructures remained largely intact during the pandemic. This situation opened the possibility for shifting care into digital spaces. In this paper, we study how older adults (ages 65 and up) in Canada and the USA navigated this abrupt turn towards digital spaces for care. Our findings are drawn from our larger mixed methods study investigating the everyday COVID-19 pandemic experiences of older adults, children, and teens, examining vulnerability, mobilities, and capacities. Not only are older adults frequently characterized as the recipients of care, but they are also typically (and erroneously) homogenized and stereotyped as vulnerable and tech-unsavvy. Exploring the ways in which older adults have provided, sought, received, avoided, and been denied care during the pandemic thus reveals the complex negotiations, contestations, and emancipatory possibilities of digital spaces of care. Our attention to the accessibility needs of diverse older adults serves as a vehicle for exploring issues of intersectionality in shaping digital care. We describe a range of digital care practices, ranging from telemedicine appointments and app-based communication to web-based volunteering and online social gatherings. We explore digital communication and connection between generations; the potential for such communication during the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented, in part due to the massive uptake of digital communication options such as online video conferencing programs. We discuss the mismatch between the possibilities made available through digital architectures and care practices, relations, needs, and desires of older adults. Drawing on feminist theorizations of care, we situate older adults as both givers and receivers of digital care and unpack the intertwining of their agency and vulnerability. Their innovations, spurred in part by diverse experiences with the aging process, the pandemic, loneliness, joy, and frustrations with care in the digital sphere, suggest radical practices and spaces for inclusive care during and after the pandemic. What is radical about such care is that it is based on everyday, even mundane, elements that often go unremarked, rather than any flashy (monetized) innovations developed by technology companies.