Mary, a fifty year old IT professional, works in the CBD. Most days she rushes out the door at 4.30pm to make it to the train station by 4.40pm. She goes home, picks up the car and drives 18 km away to her mother’s place who lives on her own. Once there, Mary cooks, cleans the house, irons clothes, has dinner with her mother and cleans up the kitchen. Her mother is at the early stages of dementia and lives independently in the family home. But this almost-daily routine has started to take its toll on Mary.

“I am taking care of two houses, mine and mum’s,” she says. “I have no social life, going on a holiday is a struggle. I often stay at mum’s at the weekends. I don’t rest.”

Mary is a carer. Compared to other elderly carers who care for husbands, wives or children with special needs, she is one of the lucky ones. She has some flexibility in her work hours and a sister-in-law who can help when her family duties allow her. Other carers are not so lucky: their lives are impacted by the constant needs of the person they care for. The physical, mental, psychological and financial demands on carers often lead to ‘carer stress’. Carers experience relationship break down, limited career opportunities or progression, loss of employment and financial security and are at a high risk of developing mental health issues.

In Victoria, there are over 700,000 carers with 239,000 identified as primary carers, according to Carers Australia. The peak organisation defines carers as ‘someone who provides unpaid assistance for family members or friends with care needs. They are parents, children, partners, other relatives and friends who assist with a variety of personal care, health care, transport, household and other activities’.

READ MORE: Sandwich carers: a generation caught in the middle

“The Greek community is one of the communities with a high percentage of carers” says Tina Douvos -Stathopoulos, Pronia CEO.

“Over a period of 16 years we offered respite services to over 10,000 carers. The last ten years our respite workers exceeded 34,234 hours of in home respite while for the same period our centre-based respite is estimated to 805,525 hours of service” she says and stresses that the need for Greek-speaking respite workers remains high.”

Data from Carers Australia show that carers can be of all ages but are most likely to be aged 45 to 54 years.  Nikki Efremidis, Pronia’s Aged & Coordinated Care manager says that these demographics are consistent with Pronia’s experience. According to Ms Efremidis – a woman who has over 20 years experienced in the aged and family services sector –  second generation Greek-Australians are known as the “sandwich generation”.

“They are caught between the needs of their elderly parents and those of their young families. They burn the candle from both ends,” she says.

“In the ’90s and up to 2005, the carer was generally the spouse of the care recipient. From the mid-2000s the profile of the carer started to change. We saw young adult children starting to care for their parents. Since 2013 the identified carer, in the vast majority of cases, is an adult child. It is this carer who experience a heightened level of stress and stress-related conditions compared to other generations,” Ms Efremidis says, adding that younger carers only reach out for help when they reach a critical point.

READ MORE: Greek Carers Group to take off in Werribee

“We see it all the time,” she says. “Carers come to PRONIA for support once they have reached crisis point. This significantly reduces options for themselves and their parents.”

She advises that they reach out immediately once “the caring responsibilities start, even if it’s just for information” in order to reduce the “stress”.

What Ms Efremidis describes is consistent with Carer Australia’s data which confirms that ‘many people with a caring role do not identify as carers, and so do not access information, services and supports’.

There are many cases of carers having to give up careers to look after their ageing parents. Some exit the workforce altogether, while others prefer part time work or to work from home in order to fit in caring for elderly parents and young children. More often than not most of these responsibilities and caring duties fall on women. Carers Australia says that 66 per cent of all primary carers are women.

“The short and also long term financial impact on women with carer duties is very real and can be severe. They lose financial independence or face financial hardship. They miss out on career opportunities, their income stagnates, their superannuation is affected” says Ms Efremidis.

Carers Australia estimates that 49 per cent of primary carers are reliant on a government pension or allowance as their main source of income. Only 39 per cent of primary carers participate in the workforce.

“It’s a complex situation, not an easy one, but we are here to help. We’ve been doing it for decades in a culturally appropriate manner” says Ms Efremidis.

“We offer in home respite which can reduce physical and emotional stress and give much needed time out. We also have centre based respite services for carers, which works really well for older carers. We provide information on every aspect that affects carers and their needs”.

Pronia’s services can be reached at (03) 9388 9998.