By Brianna Urquhart, Michele Martin, bridget livingstone, Margaret F. Gibson. Presented at the Canadian Association of Social Work Educators 2024 Conference. 

Abstract

How have the care and work lives of Canadian parents with disabilities been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic? Little literature is available examining how disabled parents navigate their care/work lives within systems, and much of the research that does exist approaches disability through a deficit lens. Fewer studies still consider the context of the pandemic, despite it fundamentally altering the ways that many families and systems operate. Many of our institutions and their new policies failed to account for the lived reality of disabled bodyminds (Clare, 2017).

This paper presents findings from the SSHRC-funded Reimagining Care/Work Policies study (P.I. Andrea Doucet). Between January and March of 2023 we interviewed 4 individuals and 6 couples living in Canada about how they approached care/work, and what role disability played in these practices. We used narrative questions and an online Family Portrait (Doucet & Klostermann, 2023) as a visual aide. Participants were selected through the Familydemic survey (2021; 2022) where they indicated that a parent in the household experienced disability or serious mental or physical health condition. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using narrative thematic analysis (Riessman, 2005) and collective reflexive analysis sessions (Doucet, 2018). Analysis centred on when and how parental disability might shape household care/work activities and the meanings that people gave to them, particularly how they experienced supports, stressors, and absences in their interactions with systems. We will highlight the implications of these findings for social workers, policy advocates, and educators.

Clare, E. (2017). Brilliant imperfection: Grappling with cure. Duke University Press.

Doucet, A. (2018). Revisiting and remaking the Listening Guide: An ecological and ontological narrativity approach to analyzing fathering narratives. In A. Humble & E. Radina (Eds.), Going behind ‘themes emerged’: Real stories of how qualitative data analysis happens. London, UK: Taylor and Francis.

Doucet, A. (2018). Revisiting and remaking the listening guide: An ecological and ontological narrativity approach to analyzing fathering narratives. In A. Humble & E. Radina (Eds.), Going behind ‘themes emerged’: Real stories of how qualitative data analysis happens (p.80-94). Taylor and Francis.

Doucet, A., & Klostermann, J. (2023). What and How are we Measuring When we Research Gendered Divisions of Domestic Labor? Remaking the Household Portrait Method into a Care/Work Portrait. Sociological Research Online, 00(0), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804231160740

Riessman, C. K. (2005) Narrative Analysis. In N. Kelly, C. Horrocks, K. Milnes, B. Roberts & D. Robinson (Eds.), Narrative, Memory & Everyday Life. University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, pp. 1-7.

 For information about the Familydemic survey, see https://familydemic.wnpism.uw.edu.pl/