Session 6. Risk perception, coping strategies and institutional responses to the COVID-19 health crisis in the older population

The pandemic has influenced people’s risk perception (Dryhurst et al. 2020), while at the same time posing a major challenge to governments, which have had to provide institutional responses to new emerging needs (massive health care needs first and foremost, but also economic and other support needs) (Scott et al. 2020). Worldwide, older people were the population group considered most at risk and, at the same time, the most affected by COVID-19 (Eurofound 2022). This condition of frailty led to the isolation of older people both in care facilities (e.g. by prohibiting visits) and outside - especially for those who lived alone, in many cases without the necessary know-how to access digital technologies useful for “seeing” and communicating remotely with loved ones. This session aims to gather papers focusing, on the one hand, on the pandemic experience of older persons and, on the other hand, on the institutional responses provided on the basis of the welfare models characterising different countries. With regard to the first macro-theme, we would welcome theoretical and empirical contributions focusing on: i) risk perception and consequent coping strategies implemented by community dwelling older persons and/or their relatives to cope with the pandemic and to protect the health of older family members; (ii) risk perception of older people in nursing homes and possible strategies of adapting to isolation. As for the institutional response to preserve the condition of older people during the pandemic, we would highly appreciate theoretical and/or empirical contributions comparing how different welfare models reacted to this specific emergency condition in different European countries.

Cristina Calvi is a Researcher at the Centre for Socio-Economic Research on Ageing (CRESI) at INRCA IRCCS, (Italy), and she is also collaborating with the University of Eastern Piedmont (Italy). Her main research interests focus on the medicalization of life, ageing, informal care, LTC and coping strategies of patients and caregivers facing long-term illness. Among her recent publications: L’impatto del Covid-19 nelle Residenze sanitario assistenziali in Italia: un’esplorazione dei fattori istituzionali e regolativi, (with Da Roit B.), in Favretto A.R., Maturo A., Tomelleri S., 2021, (a cura di), L’impatto sociale del Covid-19, Franco Angeli, Milano, pp.157-166.

Domenico Carbone is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Eastern Piedmont where he teaches General Sociology and Methodology of Social Sciences. His main research interests are in the area of generational and gender inequalities and the comparative analysis of welfare systems. Among his recent publications: Inside the emergency: digital teaching from the point of view of teachers, (with Bazzoli N., Barberis E., Dagnes J.), in Colombo M., Romito M., Vaira M., e Visentin M., 2022, (eds), Education & Emergency in Italy. How the education system reacted to the first wave of Covid-19, Brill, Amsterdam, pp. 132-145.