Based on the experiences of family carers who took part in our research, we produced a video entitled ‘A Day in the Life of a Working Family Carer‘, to demonstrate what a typical work day might look like for a family carer who balances work alongside caregiving responsibilities. Using direct quotes from family carers, we hope that this video helps to raise awareness of the multiple and often unpredictable demands facing working family carers in their day and illustrate the realities of juggling work and care. The video also provides some useful steps that organisations can take to help family carers to combine work with their caregiving responsibilities.

Drawing on the research findings from the CAREWELL project, we produced a video to raise awareness of ‘The Role of the Line manager in Supporting Family Carers in the Workplace and to highlight how line managers can provide effective support to family carers. The video explains who we mean when we talk about ‘family carers’, the challenges they experience when balancing work with care, and how they can be best supported by their line manager. Four scenarios are presented to illustrate the different ways family carers have been supported in the workplace to combine work and care.

Please tune in to CAREWELL Conversations, a podcast on the importance of supporting those balancing paid work with family caring, produced by the #CAREWELL_Project.

In our eighth episode “The win-win of retaining working family carers in paid employment” Professor David Grayson, Emeritus professor of Corporate Responsibility, Cranfield School of Management and Chair of the International Pan-Disability Charity: Leonard Cheshire, is joined in conversation by  Ms. Catherine Cox, Head of Communications at Family Carers Ireland. David is the author of the book “Take Care-how to be a great employer for working carers” and he discusses with Catherine some of the advice and strategy’s for employers outlined in his book. David was inspired to write the book by his own experience as a working family carer and his professional and academic experience in the area of corporate responsibility.

Listen to our podcast atCAREWELL Conversations and please sign up to receive regular updates about the podcast and project.

Project co-investigators are Dr Attracta Lafferty University College Dublin, Family Carers Ireland. Funded by the Health Research Board.