How to navigate care and family dynamics

Question. What is one of the most underestimated, painful and directionless parts of care?

Answer. Talking to your family about it.

Especially for the British (already perpetually awkward), discussing care with the family can cause mass arguments, stony silences and plenty of passive aggressiveness. But who could blame them? It's a complicated, highly-emotional state of exhaustion for everyone involved. Whether you are the primary caregiver or living on the other side of the world, differing opinions are always present and tend to find a way to divide.

Empathy, as always, is paramount to navigating family dynamics. If you can't even comprehend why someone feels the way they feel it makes dealing with care that much harder. Taking time to understand each other is integral and conversation is a huge part of that. No matter how tough the topic or how stubborn your family member may be. As a society we have become incredibly innovative with medicine: treating disease, replacing joints, performing life-saving surgery. But the thing we are not so great at is talking about mortality. Why? Because it is tough to talk about. It will seemingly always be hard to confront and address realistically. We have made huge strides to extend ‘end of life', but now we don't have any idea what 'end of life' should look like. Knowing this and understanding how difficult it is for everyone to express goes a long way to empathise with those nearest and dearest to you.

On our own journey, supporting employees with eldercare enquiries, we have found that many are struggling with navigating family dynamics and care. Each and every workplace we talk to has their own tough conversation. They are all the same and yet all completely unique. To all the employees, managers, HR teams and workplaces that may be struggling, here are some of the most frequently asked questions we have had and this is how we advise to deal with them. All questions are answered by our Lead Care Expert - Hannah Karim.