Help me be a better employer
Deresha
Community member Posts: 28 Connected
I am an employer to carers for my son. He has 24 hour care.
I’m trying to write a new supporting mental health policy.
I’ll keep the reason brief as it is lengthily and complex. One of my son’s carers has bipolar. For some years she has been absolutely awesome, until the last 18 months when her condition relapsed. She has gone AWOL multiple times, she has texted in absence and then switched phone off, she has turned up late, and then one morning I come down the stairs and she had gone. My disabled son was left unsupervised ?. So many times escalated and now she is on a final written warning and has gone AWOL again..... all this with many many meetings in between, accompanied by support workers and relatives. I’ve tried my utmost to help. However, I will be letting her go this time because her actions put my son at risk. (She’s okay by the way, despite currently being AWOL I am in touch with her daughter who tells me she has moved in with her).
Anyway, policy writing.
I want to implement a traffic light system for employees to put red, amber or green stickers in the communication book at the end of their shift, so that they can make me aware of their mental health without having to say it out loud. Amber would be to ask for a chat, and red would mean calling in sick was likely, for eg. Is that patronising? Should that be private or better for all to see and thus look out for each other? I already accommodate for hours worked, day shifts, night shifts etc I just want to be more approachable ? I wonder if intervening earlier may have helped my worker - I’ll. never know. We always asked if she was okay, she always said she was.
I’m trying to write a new supporting mental health policy.
I’ll keep the reason brief as it is lengthily and complex. One of my son’s carers has bipolar. For some years she has been absolutely awesome, until the last 18 months when her condition relapsed. She has gone AWOL multiple times, she has texted in absence and then switched phone off, she has turned up late, and then one morning I come down the stairs and she had gone. My disabled son was left unsupervised ?. So many times escalated and now she is on a final written warning and has gone AWOL again..... all this with many many meetings in between, accompanied by support workers and relatives. I’ve tried my utmost to help. However, I will be letting her go this time because her actions put my son at risk. (She’s okay by the way, despite currently being AWOL I am in touch with her daughter who tells me she has moved in with her).
Anyway, policy writing.
I want to implement a traffic light system for employees to put red, amber or green stickers in the communication book at the end of their shift, so that they can make me aware of their mental health without having to say it out loud. Amber would be to ask for a chat, and red would mean calling in sick was likely, for eg. Is that patronising? Should that be private or better for all to see and thus look out for each other? I already accommodate for hours worked, day shifts, night shifts etc I just want to be more approachable ? I wonder if intervening earlier may have helped my worker - I’ll. never know. We always asked if she was okay, she always said she was.
Believe it or not recruiting is really really hard, I don’t know why 1000s aren’t applying in these jobless times ??♀️
Widow/Mum to a child who is ventilator dependent via tracheostomy, he is deaf and autistic, and homeschooled.
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Comments
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Hi you can always find example policies on the internet which may help
You would have to keep what you are suggesting confidential not the policy but what the employees are sharing with you if it is about themselves
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Hi @Deresha, this sounds like it's a tricky situation. Does your son have care through direct payments or continuing health care? I was just wondering if a social work would be able to advice?
It's great that you are looking into this.Scope
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