On March 25th, Employers for Carers published a research paper titled ‘Supporting employees who are caring for someone with dementia’, the conclusions of which echo that of the Institute for Public Policy Research’s 2013 paper ‘The sandwich generation: Older women balancing work and care’. Essentially there are many many people who are working and caring for relatives who have memory problems. The strain that this places on employees is huge and can lead to them reducing their hours or leaving work altogether.
George McNamara, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at the Alzheimer’s Society, commented on the need for businesses to address this in the workplace. I agreed with his point that the provision of information for people is a key support tool which should be embraced: if staff retention is a priority then employers have to formulate a strategy for keeping carers in their jobs while they juggle caring responsibilities. The 2006 paper ‘Who Cares Wins’ published by Shefield Hallam University also illustrated the benefits to employers who took the experiences of the carers in their workforce seriously.
We would love to provide information to employees in the form of lunchtime seminars where they can hear about dementia but also ask the questions pertinent to their own family situation. As we live longer and longer the pressures on the workforce will only increase, until every generation is a sandwich generation…