Workplace flexibility 'paramount' for 'sandwich generation' caring for both children and aging relatives

Australia Broadcast Center

a day ago

For Canberra woman Belle Hogg, the first sign her life was about to change came when her mother forgot her birthday.
"You might say it's not a big deal, but she's the sort of mum that would send you something in the post two weeks before your birthday because it had to be perfect," Ms Hogg said.
"At the time, I was actually cranky … and I said, 'I'm going up there, something's not right.'"
Her mother had dramatically lost weight and her home was in a state of disarray.
Soon after, the then-68-year-old was diagnosed with dementia.
Suddenly, Ms Hogg found herself juggling full-time work in the public service, a photography business, raising her three children and caring for her mother.
"She just declined so quickly, and it was just so hard going to work and thinking, 'Is she OK at home?'"
Ms Hogg is part of the "sandwich generation" — adults caring for both children and aging relatives.
As the population ages and people start their families later in life, a growing number of Australians are finding themselves squeezed by dual caring responsibilities.
"It's definitely a rollercoaster — Mum and I have always been besties, the person I call for every piece of advice," Ms Hogg said.
Research indicates about two-thirds of sandwich carers are women.
Canberran Evie Kollas retired prematurely from teaching to care for her now-94-year-old mother and other family members.
"That has financial implications. It also has social implications," Ms Kollas said.
She said her caring and administrative responsibilities took up the time of a full-time job, without the same recognition.
"If it was a job, it would be paid really well, and it would be really, really well resourced, and we would have some status," Ms Kollas said.
"None of that applies to carers.
"Recognition is always something carers have called for, but it needs to be a wider recognition, it needs to be a social revolution, it needs to be appreciated on a political level."
ABC Canberra has been inundated with frustrated stories of carers in the sandwich generation who feel forgotten by the system.
"I personally feel completely ripped off as I had to retire early from a job I loved to care for parents AND In-laws AND grandchildren. I've spent 10 years trying to juggle everything, retired 4 years ago, and have no hope in the foreseeable future of having the retirement we planned. By the time my carer burden is gone I will be too old/unwell to travel."
"I'm working full time, caring for my 2 primary school children and now caring for my mother with dementia. My Aged Care has assessed her as needing a level 3 home care package but they won't release the funding. So my mum sleep[s] in my living room. We are all at our wits' end. We get no help. The dementia hotline said when it gets too much my best option is to leave her at the local hospital which they call a 'social admission'. We are paying a consultant thousands of dollars to try and find an aged care placement. The system is broken."
"I'm in a double sandwich generation family. My 80yr old parents have been caring for my grandmother for 20+ years (she has now been in aged care for a couple of years). I am supporting my parents whilst raising my kids, who are still young teenagers … I have limited my work (both in hours and in complexity) to prioritise my caring responsibilities. This [affects] my superannuation and plans for my aged care."
Melissa Reader, chief executive of not-for-profit Violet Initiative, said sandwich carers were crying out for more support.
"Sixty-thousand Australians will turn 85 in the next five or six years … so it's a really phenomenal shift in our demographics and it's putting enormous pressure on the adult caregivers of those elderly Australians," Ms Reader said.
And she said the impact of people leaving the workforce would have widespread effects on society.
She said a high proportion of sandwich carers were stepping out of their position in the workforce as teachers, nurses or aged care staff.
Michelle O'Shea of the University of Western Sydney said a survey run by Carers NSW found sandwich carers wanted to be in paid employment.
"[Survey participants expressed] getting out of the home, getting ready for work, going to a workplace, engaging with people as being so important," Dr O'Shea said.
Dr O'Shea said carers were often forced into making short-term decisions to look after themselves which sometimes had long-term negative ramifications.
"Having to not go for promotion, not necessarily being available for the same number of shifts, or moving from full-time to part-time employment where that was practical — carers talked about the fact that there was often an unwillingness within their current employment to enable their ongoing work," she said.
"That is, you couldn't be a senior leader, or you couldn't be a supervisor, and be so on a part-time basis, for example."
She said it was important for employers to be able to provide carers with the flexibility they needed such as starting later in the day, finishing later in the evening or allowing breaks in the day for medical appointments.
And when that sort of flexibility was given, Dr O'Shea said it benefited everyone.
"When that flexibility was provided there was a really positive sense — the employee felt really positive about their workplace, and said the fact they were being given flexibility [meant] that they were probably working over and above to acknowledge their employer's trust in them," she said.