Slides presented at the DIPEx International Meeting 2020

In light of the DIPEx International commitment to study individual experiences that people have with health and illness, in order to understand where did people struggle and where did they learn, this research project aims to clarify what we can comprehend from the experiences of COVID-19 survivors from the Countries that participate to this study.

This research project is focused on action-oriented research, intended as “a participatory process concerned with developing practical knowing in the pursuit of worthwhile human purposes. It seeks to bring together action and reflection, theory and practice, in participation with others, in the pursuit of practical solutions to issues of pressing concern to people, and more generally the flourishing of individual persons and their communities” (Reason and Bradbury 2008, p. 4).

This research project aims to provide information and support to patients, families, carers, friends and healthcare professionals about the experience of and recovery from COVID-19, and consequently to understand how response strategies (intended both on a clinical and on a social level) to the current public health crisis and to future significant threats to public health can be reshaped and ameliorated, learning from recovered patients with lived experience of COVID-19.

In detail, our objective is to investigate:

• What are the experiences of COVID-19 survivors across the world, taking into account the clinical trajectory (first signs, diagnosis, treatment and recovery)?
• What are the experiences of COVID-19 survivors across the world, taking into account the social trajectory (sources of information, role of the national governments, “horizontal communication”, trust and mistrust, inequality, uncertainty and coping with uncertainty, prevention measures – including their impact – )?
• How did these experiences change over time, during the different phases of the pandemic?