Digital social contact and sentiment between 2016 and 2023 in a large long-term care facility for people with intellectual disabilities

During the initial phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, people with disabilities in sheltered homes for long-term care (approximately 70,000) were faced with restrictions for receiving visitors and visiting their loved ones. This had a significant impact on their well-being. Digital social contact such as video calling or social media was used more than before as an alternative to physical contact (Boeije et al., 2021; Chadwick et al., 2022; Nguyen et al., 2020). This also led to people who previously did not use digital contact to try this, such as individuals with severe and multiple disabilities and their loved ones (Bakkum et al., 2023).

The attention to digital contact and the sentiment surrounding digital contact for people with intellectual disabilities is still largely unknown. Our previous studies suggest that since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been increased attention to digital contact within care institutions. Selected responses indicate positive changes in sentiment surrounding digital contact among people with disabilities within sheltered care homes and their loved ones (Bakkum et al., 2022; Douma et al., 2023). This could mean that COVID-19 measures may have had the side effect of reducing the gap between people with intellectual disabilities and the general population in their digital participation and inclusion.

However, there are also reasons to doubt whether digital contact receives due attention and to expect a decline after the pandemic. Moreover, there may also be negative sentiment surrounding digital contact such as frustrating experiences (Bakkum et al., 2023; Embregts et al., 2022). The expected decrease in digital contact after the scaling back of COVID-19 measures compared to the lockdown period provides an indication of the contribution that large-scale and drastic but also short-lived measures may have had on digital participation and inclusion.

To find out in which directions the trends are heading, we study the mentions of digital contact in care records of people with intellectual disabilities and the sentiment surrounding digital contact between 2016 and 2023 in an organization that provides long-term care in sheltered homes. Our research questions are:

1. What is the trend between 2016 and 2023 in attention to digital contact in the care and guidance of people in sheltered care homes of a large organization for long-term care for people with intellectual disabilities?
a. How did the initiation of the visitation restrictions during the first lockdown in 2020 impact the trend in mentions of digital contact in care records?
b. Do support needs and severity of the disability moderate this trend?

2. What are the trends in positive and negative sentiment regarding digital contact?
a. How did the initiation of the visitation restrictions during the first lockdown in 2020 impact the trends in positive or negative sentiment surrounding digital contact?
b. Do support needs and severity of the disability moderate this trend?