Just Emergencies Episode 9: Covid-19, Carers & Vulnerability. Vulnerability Part 3 with Prof. Susan Dodds

Nurse Statue

In Episode 9 of Just Emergenices ‘Covid-19, Carers & Vulnerability’, Rebecca is joined by Professor Susan Dodds to discuss the range of vulnerabilities carers might experience during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

In this third installment of our Vulnerability Series, Professor Dodds distinguishes between three types of carers in particular: health care workers on the front lines of the pandemic, non-clinician carers such as age-care and disability-care providers, and the unpaid cares that care for children and other family members.

“All the things that help to mitigate against people having the damaging consequences of vulnerability are under threat through a pandemic such as this one.”

Drawing on the taxonomy of vulnerability she developed with Professors Mackenzie and Rogers, Professor Dodds highlights how policies, social structures, and an under-recognised care sector can make carers vulnerable not only to Covid-19 itself, but to, for example, mental health challenges and isolation.

She also explores the relationship between the vulnerabilities of carers and the vulnerabilities of the people they’re caring for.

To find out more, listen to the full episode and and read the transcript.

Links and Further Resources

C.Mackenzie, W. Rogers and S. Dodds, Vulnerability: New Essays in Ethics and Feminist Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2013).

‘What has been the impact of Covid-19 on care homes and the social care workforce?‘, (The Health Foundation, 15 May 2020).

E. Visontay, ‘Australian agd-care sector pleads for extra $1.5bn coronavirus rescue packag‘, The Guardian (30 April 2020).

S. Staab, ‘Covid-19 sends teh care economy deeper into crisis mode‘, (UN Women, 22 April 2020).

Coronavirus: The NHS staff living away from homes and families‘, (BBC News, 22 April 2020).

Human Rights Dimensions of Covid-19 Response‘, (Human Rights Watch, 19 March 2020).

Interim Report‘, (Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, 2019).

G. Ferrant, L. M. Pesando and K. Nowacka, ‘Unpaid Care Work: The missing link in the analysis of gender gaps in labour outcomes‘, (OECD Development Centre, 2014).


Credits

‘Just Emergencies’ is produced and edited by Rebecca Richards and made with funding from the Wellcome Trust.

Our intro song is ‘The sun comes up, I come down’ by Silicon Transmitter.

Our outro song is ‘Surge and Swell’ by Pictures of the Floating World.

Both are available under an Attribution-Noncommerical-ShareAlike3.0 Creative Commons License from Free Music Archive.

Image by Graham Ruttan on Unsplash.