A review on implications of home care in a biological hazard: The case of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19

This technical brief intends to review existing guidelines, research evidence and published practices related to home care, covering care delivered by formal and informal care providers with the care recipients maintained at their own homes. Home care has been a healthcare option for addressing the surge capacity introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to serve as a technical background review of various home care issues and to inform, facilitate and improve community’s response to health needs and individual’s capacity in self-care. It also seeks to protect the well-being of people who might need home care or are otherwise affected by the global COVID-19 emergency. In addition to addressing the research scoping needs of the WHO COVID-19 Roadmap Social Science Research group in issues related to home care, other intended users of this report also include IRDR ICoEs, WHO global Health-EDRM research network, relevant researchers, policy makers and stakeholders of people who have home care service design responsibilities. Additional policy reports, briefing notes, related research programme proposals and technical finding derivatives are expected to be developed from this report.