It is International Women’s Day and therefore pertinent to recognise the enormous contribution that women make to the lives of people living with dementia. At the UK Dementia Congress last year, Worcester University presented the research paper ‘Women and Dementia’ which demonstrated that ‘Dementia has not only become the leading cause of death among British women, but they are also more likely to end up as carers of those with dementia than men’.
As many of our followers know, one of the main aims of Pathways Through Dementia is to reach out to and support sandwich generation carers – these are mainly women who are termed ‘sandwich generation’ because they are sandwiched between roles, maybe raising a family and caring for relatives with dementia, or working and caring for relatives with dementia. This juggling act can become very stressful – my own mother gave up work in order to care for and move my grandmother nearer to us because my grandfather could not cope with his wife’s Alzheimer’s disease.
“Women who work and care for someone with dementia face the significant and very real possibility of negative impacts to their career.” The report also mentions that 18% of women have taken a leave of absence from work due to their caring responsibilities.
We are holding a one day conference on May 20th in Shoreditch which is looking to attract HR managers who are interested in supporting their employees who fall into the sandwich generation category – talks from Employers for Carers, Dementia Carer Friendly Workplaces, and Pathways Through Dementia will illustrate how employers can take some simple, cost effective steps to reduce stress and absenteeism. Let’s do something great together! Come to the conference if your HR department has yet to see the benefits of creating a Dementia Carer Friendly Workplace – reduced prices for self funders:
https://pathwaysthroughdementia.org/seminars.htm
Tickets on Eventbrite, search for Creating Dementia Carer Friendly Workplaces, thank you!