Voices from Service Providers Who Supported Young Caregivers throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Canadian Context.

This empirical research is part of a larger project beginning in 2020 and ongoing until 2023, exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young caregivers aged 5-25 years and their families in Canada. This qualitative research utilizes the social determinants of health as a conceptual framework and a collective case study design to emphasize the voices and experiences of service providers (professionals offering services to young caregiver clients) during the COVID-19 pandemic, and exploring their perspectives on the impact of the pandemic on young caregivers and their families. The central research question guiding this study was "How do service providers (professionals) working with young caregiver clients in Canada describe the impacts of the pandemic on themselves, their professional praxis, and on their young caregiver clients?" The aim of this study was to develop a deeper understanding of the impact of the pandemic on young caregivers in Canada, from the perspectives of service providers, as well as to understand the experiences of service providers in their own voices. Data were collected from service providers working within three (3) different organizations offering programs and services to young caregiver clients in Ontario, Canada. In total, six (6) individual interviews were conducted with service providers who were directors/program managers, and four (4) group interviews were conducted with thirteen (13) service providers who were frontline staff members who worked directly with young caregivers and their families. In total, nineteen (