Workers caring for ill relatives ‘need employers’ support’

EMPLOYERS have been urged to be more understanding of the pressures faced by workers caring for seriously or terminally ill relatives.

Workers, both full- and part-time, are thought to make up a large percentage of the estimated 150,000 primary carers in the State.

They face huge extra demands on their time as well as physical, psychological and emotional difficulties, said Breffni McGuinness, a training officer with the Irish Hospice Foundation.

Mr McGuinness will lead the first of a series of seminars organised by the foundation on the impact of grief in the workplace.

Other seminars will ask what to do when a colleague dies and how to support a bereaved work mate.

Most employers are sympathetic when a worker reveals they are caring for a relative with, for example, Alzheimer’s or cancer, said Mr McGuinness.

Others, however, are not and some employees fear telling line managers as they believe it may affect their job prospects or even see them being let go.

“In terms of a worse possible scenario, it would probably be a person who does not feel safe enough to talk about the situation,” said Mr McGuinness, who cared for his mother who suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease for five years before her death.

“Sometimes the relative feels they have to make a choice, and some choose to leave a job rather than continue.”

Employees who may feel they want to keep private their life outside work are also urged to set aside that feeling.

“In something like this you are talking about a very stressful situation and it’s going to cut into their work anyway. You can maintain boundaries but this cuts across that and will affect work,” said Mr McGuinness, who believes those caring for the terminally ill are already grieving, though the relative may be still alive.

Support from employers will reap long term benefits for a company, not just from the individual concerned but also from colleagues who will clearly see the backing he or she has received, the hospice argues.

There are no figures in Ireland for the number of primary carers who are also working. However, a survey in the United States suggest it is over 60% of the total number.

The first of three lunchtime seminars - to be held at the foundation’s Nassau Street, Dublin headquarters - is on January 18, with the others in February and March.