disability – 3minuteleadership

Dementia has become a central part of my life after my mum received a diagnosis last year. One of the benefits of this experience for me has been an increased awareness of the impact of dementia in the workplace and considerations as an employer.

First of all, we know that the number of people with dementia is increasing and the likelihood of having a diagnosis increases with age. Here are some useful statistics:

There are currently 900,000 people living with dementia in the UK and this is projected to rise to 1.6 million by 2040.
Up to 1.7 million people could be living with dementia in England and Wales by 2040 – over 40% more than previously forecast.
1 in 11 people over the age of 65 have dementia in the UK.
65% of the 944,000 people living with dementia in the UK are women.
1 in 3 people born in the UK today will develop dementia in their lifetime.

Plans to increase the pension age to 68 means there will be more older people in the workforce. And, if you are a charity, you might be working with an ageing group of volunteers also.

The final group to remember is the working carers who are relied upon to fill the gap in health and social care services for people with dementia.

What to remember as an employer:

Dementia is a disability – people with dementia must be treated like any other employee with a disability. That means understanding what dementia is and supporting the individual to carry on working (if that is their wish) by making reasonable adjustments.

It’s just a new way of looking at things – when a person has dementia, their brain works differently. They are less likely to cope with complexity so clear communication and direction is essential. They are also more likely to be tired so flexibility may be required.

It does not mean the individual has lost capacity – The Mental Capacity Act states that capacity should be assumed in the absence of an assessment. It is more than possible that someone with dementia still has capacity to make their own decisions.

It is a living bereavement – family members are likely to experience grief and loss even though the person is still alive. A diagnosis represents the beginning of what’s known as ‘the long goodbye’. It is a major adjustment and family members may need time to adjust.

Balancing work and care – There are 5 million working carers in the UK. Alzheimers Society estimate that there are 700,000 unpaid carers of people living with dementia. This group has to find a way to balance work and care. Ensuring they are supported in the workplace to deal with this change can make all the difference for employee retention.

From the figures provided, it is fair to expect that dementia will become more prevalent in the workplace so it is important to be aware and consider how to identify problems and create a safe and supportive environment.

If you are affected by dementia and need support, here is where to get help:

Carers UK

Alzheimer’s Society

Dementia UK

Cruse Bereavement Support (offering specialist support for those experiencing grief and loss as a result of dementia)

If you have a military connection, call the Royal British Legion

Have you been affected by dementia in the workplace? Is there useful learning you can share? Post in the comments below.

“Now I’m awake to the world. I was asleep before. That’s how we let it happen. When they slaughtered congress, we didn’t wake up. Then they blamed terrorists and suspended the constitution. We didn’t wake up then either. They said it would be temporary. Nothing changes instantaneously. In a gradually heating bathtub you’d be boiled to death before you even knew it.”

This monologue sets the scene for an episode of the recent television drama ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, attempting to explain how the leaders of the Republic of Gilead came to be in power. It suggests that they gained control by making small changes, bit by bit, until nothing was the same and they had so much hold over everything, there was no choice but to do what they said.

In the story, a religious dictatorship has taken control and its leaders introduce a strict regime within which, women’s rights are removed and a caste system introduced. One morning, the main character ‘Offred’ has her debit card declined when attempting to buy a coffee. She later discovers that this is because ‘they changed the law’ and women are no longer allowed to have assets. Instead, they find that their money and any estate must be handed over to their male next of kin.

We are told that there is a serious problem with infertility in the Republic of Gilead and so fertile women are sent to families with standing in the regime where they find themselves forced to bear children for the family. When the women are taken by the regime, they lose their identity. Offred is literally ‘of Fred’ and we see in the programme that when a handmaid is reassigned, their name changes according to the man they belong to.

Children are taken away and second marriages are dissolved.

The dramatization brings to life the famous book by Margaret Atwood which was published in 1985. Since its release, the book has won a number of awards and is a standard course text for English Literature students across Britain and maybe even further. What makes the tale so chilling is the knowledge that when Atwood wrote the novel, she committed to only writing things that have actually happened in the world. It’s quite scary to think that what we see in this show is or has been a reality for some.

The novel tells a cautionary tale of totalitarianism and setting it in Trump’s America makes it scary to watch as it feels conceivable that civilisation could crumble, allowing power to settle in the wrong hands. As we watch the President’s first year, we see many rising up against a perceived threat to civil liberties and growing unrest makes many fearful for the future.

So how on earth can anyone gain so much power that they can make people live as we see in Gilead?

It begins with the construction of ‘them and us’ using negative for ‘them’ and positive for ‘us’, creating an enemy which people can easily be turned against. The President’s travel ban is a good example of this as he sought to ‘protect the nation from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals’. It created unrest across America and uneasiness amongst those ‘foreign nationals’ who live in the US and those who value diversity. He has also been criticised for comments about other groups such as women (see Trump sexism tracker) and those with disabilities.

Those who agree with these views take strength from such comments and show how easy it is to ‘us’ against ‘them’ as we saw during the election campaign and more recently in Charlottesville. Of course what these perpetrators don’t realise is in a culture where this kind of power has taken hold, no one is safe.

One of the key techniques in a totalitarian regime is encouraging people to turn each other in when they are not respecting the regime or its leader. We only have to look to Nazi Germany, communist China and North Korea to see that a central part of retaining power is encouraging people to report those who have done something wrong. Even a small misdemeanour can lead to death. Punishing those who have done wrong and rewarding those who turned them over is the perfect way to reinforce the status quo. An example of this is the so called ‘slut-shaming’ which encourages women to rat each other out and expose others who are then subject to further abuse.

I’m sure it isn’t just me that wants to hold on to my freedom and so the most important thing is to pay attention to what’s going on in the world and not be asleep while things are changing beyond your control.

Have you been watching The Handmaid’s Tale? Let us know what you think it teaches us about leadership in the comments below.

3minuteleadership.org

Tag: disability

Dementia in the workplace: Insight & Support

What ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ teaches us about power and engagement