Professor Janet Fast: The Organization of Care, Work and Policy in Canada

Professor Fast will describe the situation of caregivers in Canada, including findings from Statistics Canadas 2012 General Social Survey on Caregiving and Care Receiving.

Abstract

Professor Fast will describe the situation of caregivers in Canada, including findings from Statistics Canada’s 2012 General Social Survey on Caregiving and Care Receiving. She also will report on evolving Canadian federal and provincial policy initiatives to support caregiver employees, including financial compensation, caregiving leaves, Human Rights case law and measures to engage employer support. Finally she will comment on workplace supports for caregiver employees based in part on her team’s 2011 study of workplace programmes, policies and practices.

Biography

Prof Janet Fast is a Professor in the Department of Human Ecology at the University of Alberta, and Co-director of the Research on Aging, Policies and Practice research program. She holds a PhD in family and consumer economics from Cornell University. Major themes of her research are the economics of aging and the paid and unpaid care work of family members. She currently co-leads an international and multidisciplinary research team investigating the intersection of work and care across the life course, and public and private policy strategies for facilitating integration of unpaid care work with paid work.