'We became their beginning, their middle and their end'

BackgroundCommunicating with people with severe/profound intellectual disabilities is essential for person-centred, rights-based support. Despite a proliferation of research around COVID-19, there is a dearth of evidence exploring its impact on communication with people with severe/profound intellectual disabilities. This study aimed to explore disability support staff experiences of communicating with people with severe/profound intellectual disabilities through the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA qualitative descriptive study was undertaken. A purposive sample of six disability support staff who supported people with severe/profound intellectual disabilities through the pandemic in four Irish residential services participated in online, semistructured interviews. Data were analysed thematically.FindingsSix themes were generated including unwavering commitment; running on empty; being a safe haven; empathic understanding; heightened sensitivity and new insights. Participants discussed the impact of COVID-19 on communicating with people they support, the contextual challenges, how these were managed/overcome and new learning that emerged. Although communication challenges did present because of COVID-19 restrictions, communication remained a priority.ConclusionsDespite the challenges experienced by disability support workers, their unwavering commitment to ensuring the well-being of people with severe/profound intellectual disabilities was identified. This was a small-scale qualitative study but highlights areas warranting further research and makes recommendations for practice and service planning. The restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic made it very hard to interact with people.This study looked at disability support workers' experience of interacting with people with severe/profound intellectual disabilities who live in residential services.The study participants talked about how important it was to be there for a person with severe/profound intellectual disability because visitors were not allowed, and they might not understand why.It is important that we use what we learned through this challenging time to provide better support in the future.