Ideas for …

Employers

Many workplaces employ someone who has a life-threatening illness, is a carer, or who will be bereaved at some stage of their working life. Employers can play an important role in supporting employees during these experiences.

If you are an employer, or involved in the human resources practices of an organisation, is there anything that you can do to ensure systems and supports are in place for employees dealing with experiences relating to death, dying and bereavement? For example:

• Write a ‘what to do if someone dies’ policy, setting out the steps that should be taken if a colleague dies or becomes bereaved, then share this work with Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief so that others can learn from your work
• Make sure all your organisation's line managers are ready and able to manage a bereavement in the workplace. Checkout Cruse Bereavement Care's Employer's Bereavement Toolkit here: Toolkit

Example: Palliative Care Victoria

Palliative Care Victoria (Australia) undertook a project to develop a best practice model of support in the workplace for people with a life-threatening illness and employed carers.

Respondents to the study included not only carers and those living with illness, but also employers/managers and work colleagues.

A profile of needs was drawn up, and strategies for economic, emotional, information and appraisal support identified.