[Management Of Covid-19 Pandemic In Shelters For Asylum Seekers: Results From A Mixed Methods Study.]

Abstract

Background: Refugees in Germany are often housed in shelters, where their influence on the organization of everyday life is severely limited. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these shelters therefore had a special responsibility to take measures to protect the health of their residents. The aim of this research project was to examine how this task was managed and how the pandemic affected daily life in refugee shelters, with the aim to formulate recommendations for practice.

Methods: Using a mixed-methods study, the first step was a scoping review of the literature on the management of infectious disease outbreaks in refugee shelters. Building on the findings of the review, management of the pandemic was then explored in an online survey and in interviews with experts and residents of shelters. In a third step, the results of the preceding steps were summarized and discussed with a panel of experts. Recommendations for practice were developed with the expert panel in two discussion rounds two months apart.

Results: The refugee shelters included in the study were inadequately prepared for the pandemic and often did not develop contingency plans until the pandemic was underway. In many cases, the contingency plans included the establishment of crisis teams, but the interests and perspectives of facility residents were generally not represented by these teams. This subsequently led to problems: Pandemic measures were often not communicated in a timely or sufficiently understandable manner, gaps in care resulting from measures were not identified or addressed, and psychosocial stresses associated with the pandemic and quarantine measures were not adequately mitigated.

Conclusion: • Refugee shelters should establish mechanisms to integrate residents' interests and perspectives into decision-making processes in a structured manner, regardless of the pandemic.• Depending on the type of shelter, this should be realized through resident involvement in decision-making bodies or other appropriate representation of interests. • Measures introduced during the pandemic that may have a negative impact on the psychosocial situation of residents should be terminated as soon as the epidemic justification for the measures no longer applies.