Caring magazine 48 Caring April 2018 | Page 7

Connect with other carers: carersuk.org/forum into the arteries towards her heart and that allows us to inject antibiotics directly into her blood stream to fight the infection. Someone needs to be at home with her to administer her medication. Helping employers help carers We have a balancing act between work and home. At work we try to help our managers understand our situation and give them as much warning as possible @carersuk /carersuk when we think Amber’s health is deteriorating. If I say to my manager, ‘Amber has a cough’ they need to understand that’s not just a normal cough and might be the start of something more serious, which might involve me being away from the office. My employers are really supportive of us. We have a dedicated carers’ group in the office and I am now its co-chair. A while ago, Carers UK came in to talk to the group and I told them that I felt some anxiety whenever there was a change in manager. The journey typically goes that you build a relationship with a manager and educate them about your situation, which makes things easier. When you get a new manager you start to feel this anxiety rising. You start to think, ‘I hope this manager is as understanding as the last one.’ Carers UK put forward the idea of a carer passport, 7