| Summary: | Canada's rising aging population in addition to the de-institutionalization of palliative care services to the community-level has placed increased pressure on employed family members to provide care. Canada's federal government has responded through the creation of the Compassionate Care Benefit (CCB), enacted in 2004 with the goal of providing family caregivers with job-secured time away from work as well as six weeks of employment insurance (El) benefits of up to 55% of their average earnings while they take leave to provide care to a dying loved one. Individual workplaces have been aware for years of the need to accommodate their employees' family needs through the adoption of Family Friendly Work Policies (FFWPs). Traditionally, these policies have been associated with assisting female employees with maternity and childcare supports. With the rising elderly population and emphasis on family care giving, more workers will have the dual role of being a worker and a caregiver to a loved one, which suggests that workforces need to be prepared by offering suitable supports to accommodate their workforces who are also terminal caregivers. The objectives of this thesis are twofold. First, it attempts to uncover the expectations and realities that employers and HR professionals had of the CCB, specific to how it meets their employees' needs, how it meets the informational needs of the workplace, and its ability to be incorporated within existing features. The second objective specifically focuses on palliative or end-of-life (P/EoL) care giving situations in the workplace through addressing how workplace size and employee characteristics determine how 'family caregiver friendly' a given workplace can be. Five focus group discussions occurred in British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador with employers/human resources (RR) professionals in an effort to gain input from diverse employers representing various workplace sizes and sectors. All focus groups were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and thematically analyzed. Master of Arts (MA)
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