1 Department of Applied Human Sciences, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
2 Bruyère Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
3 Department of Family Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
4 School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
5 Western University, London, ON, Canada.
6 Lawson Health Research Institute, London, ON, Canada.
7 School of Health Studies, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
8 School of Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of the care provided by family members and close friends to older people living in long-term care (LTC) homes. Our implementation science team helped three Ontario LTC homes to implement an intervention to allow family members to enter the homes during pandemic lockdowns.

Objective: We used a variety of methods to support the implementation, and this paper reports results from an Ontario-wide survey intended to help us understand the nature of the care provided by family caregivers.

Methods: We administered a survey of essential caregivers in Ontario, and a single open-ended question yielded a substantial qualitative data set that we analysed with a coding and theming procedure that yielded 13 themes.

Findings: The 13 themes reveal deficiencies in Ontario's LTC sector, attempts to cope with the deficiencies, and efforts to influence change and improvement.

Discussion: Our findings indicate that essential caregivers find it necessary to take on vital roles in order to shore up two significant gaps in the current system: they provide psychosocial and emotional (and sometimes even basic) care to residents, and they play a monitoring and advocacy role to compensate for the failings of the current regulatory compliance regime.