Complexity of the illness experience and its impact on working and - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Complexity of the illness experience and its impact on working and work transitions - the condition itself - the nature of the work environment - the nature of the work - GP, NHS responses - the need or motivation to work - the role of
Nature of the work GP, NHS responses Family and friends Individual‟s resilience Need or motivation to work Work environment The condition itself
Illness experience and work transitions
Co-workers Organisational culture Line management Policies i.e. Sickness absence Work Environment
Degree of discretion Shift systems Un/steady workflow Arduous/ stressful Physical/ mental Nature of work
Career structures Job satisfaction/ interest Degree of discretion Escape to work Self esteem Benefit systems Financial Need or motivation to work
Family and friend examples Practical support for work Pressure to work/ tolerance of not working Family and friends
Colin who is currently 60 had worked for the Police but retired in 1995 going on to work for British Gas for five years. In his forties he had had two heart attacks and a heart bypass at 50. His health continued to be a worry. He had also remarried in his forties and at the time of interview had three children under the age of 16. Two years ago he realised that he needed to scale down his work because of his health, although he wanted to continue working. He went back to working for the Police on the civilian side and had negotiated a job-share arrangement:
‘Obviously because of previous medical problems, I’ve got to be careful what I do, so, as I say, I’m on a job-share, so I’m OK with that because it means that because it’s a shift-system that I work, it means there’s long periods when I’m off…. Well, normally I would work until
to keep my options open and also the new age act that’s come in, it
Source: Vickerstaff et al ((2008) Encouraging Labour Market Activity Among 60-64 Year Olds, Research Report no. 531 DWP.
Flexibility available GP, NHS Responses ? Strong push to work from family ? Financial motivation Benign work environment Heart problems
Illness experience
„Emma‟ is 33, married, with a 10 year old son and works part-time (eight hours a week) for a private Home Care company. She is the main carer for her husband, „Terry‟, who is retired on ill-health grounds following surgery for a brain tumour. He has very poor short term memory and complicated medical needs including incontinence, epilepsy and a complete lack of awareness that he has the condition. „Emma‟ feels under a lot of pressure at home and suffers from tiredness, disturbed sleep, being short tempered and irritable. She gains little emotionally from her marriage and carries a heavy weight of responsibility for both „Terry‟ and their son. She was on anti-depressants for a while but stopped taking
„I don’t actually want to work. I used to enjoy working and I don’t think I do….Whether that’s because I’ve not found what I want to do. I work probably to get out of the house and go…get away, not that I don’t think about what’s going on at home and just a bit of income really.’ Vickerstaff et al, Employment Support for Carers DWP Research Report forthcoming
Flexible but replicates caring at home Prescribed anti-depressants Some support ? Weak motivation to work – escape to work Unsympathetic work environment Stress/mental health
Illness experience
Carol worked for over 10 years in a independently run centre for disadvantaged children, having been a respite foster carer previously. She was a day-care leader for pre-school children. The work was increasingly stressful: I mean an example would be that, you know, I went to one particular funeral where I’d buried a mum, her baby of just over a year and her little girl of 3 years and I’d been cuddling those 2 children a few hours before this fire and had got quite a good relationship going with this mum and she finally was able to open up. Carol had to go back to work straight after this event and soon after went on sick leave with headaches and anxiety and never returned to work.
Source: Vickerstaff et al ((2008) Encouraging Labour Market Activity Among 60-64 Year Olds, Research Report no. 531 DWP.
Stressful work GP rather passive ? ? Children had left home, could cope on benefits Poor management Mental health
Illness experience