Continuing To Work

A serious illness can cause someone to question their sense of who they are. Being ill can mean a loss of control, independence and the sense of feeling normal. Being a family carer can bring up many of the same feelings. Work can represent a sense of identity and self-reliance in an uncertain world. Many people, both patients and carers, want to try to continue to work.

The personal experience of illness becomes a public one when work colleagues are informed. The illness will affect not only the patient or carer, but also the people that they work with. Work colleagues can be unsure of how to respond, which can lead to communication problems and avoidance of important issues. Ignorance may cause people to be scared and distance themselves. If the seriousness of the illness is acknowledged and talked about, it could avoid emotional stress within the workplace and for the person who is ill.

Palliative care services could help businesses and organisations when someone chooses to continue working. This could be the personal or business relationships that will be affected.

Support that could help someone continue to work:

Talk to a manager or the human resources department about looking at some options:

How to tell your workmates that you or someone you are caring for is ill
How your workmates can learn more about the illness or about the caring role
How to support staff
Negotiating a flexible shift roster.

When someone who is ill continues to work other considerations may need to be made:

Re-organising work space
Re-organising work tasks and perhaps spreading the work load
Replacement and modification of equipment
Social support – inviting the sick person to staff meetings or functions, which can help to stop them from feeling isolated
Allowing the person to have rest breaks at work
Succession planning – how to enable a smooth transition when it comes time to leave.

Resources

The Living Caring Working website from Palliative Care Australia has some useful information for those working with someone who has a terminal illness
The Carers Australia website has information for working carers
The Health Issues Centre website has an article on livelihood and life threatening illness that may be of help.
Business Victoria has created a webpage, Illness Management Plan, dealing with illness management and business issues such as closing or selling a business and continuing to work with a critical illness.

This page was created on 26 May 2009 and is due for review in May 2011.
Last updated 2 June 2009