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Tuesday, 06 July 2010 00:00 |
Ann is one of a legion of Indigenous carers looking after loved ones in our community. Her story as a grandmother is especially touching. |  |
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Tuesday, 01 June 2010 00:00 |
The call came to her in the bistro in San Francisco where she was working long hours as a head chef. | |
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Tuesday, 04 May 2010 00:00 |
Roland Rocchiccioli has been entertaining television and theatre audiences for over 40 years. | |
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Tuesday, 06 April 2010 00:00 |
Louise Lambeth’s mum is 88 years old. Five years ago, when Louise was 43, her mum moved in to live with her and her husband and two children. | |
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Tuesday, 06 April 2010 00:00 |
Australia's newest political party, the Parents and Citizens Party, is calling for feedback on a draft proposal it is putting forward to deliver a universal parent and carer living allowance. | 
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Tuesday, 02 March 2010 00:00 |
With stories like Alexandra's, it is clear that we are facing a crisis as our ageing population can no longer act as a carer for adult family members. | |
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Tuesday, 02 February 2010 00:00 |
Elva works as an accountant for a busy kitchen manufacturing business by day, and as one of a family of carers for her father, Richard, at night and on weekends.
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Tuesday, 01 December 2009 00:00 |
Paul is a working carer looking for a new job that will give him the flexibility to continue his caring role.
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Tuesday, 03 November 2009 01:00 |
There is a great and growing crisis in Australia that few people know about and even less are talking about, says Sydney mother and working carer Estelle Shields. | |
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Monday, 24 August 2009 12:53 |
At 28, Tammy is now the primary carer for her mother, who was always an active woman until a rare type of dementia took hold in her early 50's
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Tuesday, 04 August 2009 01:00 |
Maurice works as a photographer for a busy metropolitan newspaper and cares for his elderly father-in-law, who lives at home with him and his two teenage children. Maurice’s wife died of cancer three years ago. | |
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Tuesday, 07 July 2009 01:00 |
Rebecca is 39 and a sees herself as a ‘sandwich’ carer | |
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Tuesday, 02 June 2009 01:00 |
| When she was a younger child, Jasmin didn’t really understand that her dad had an illness that was going to have a massive impact on her life | |
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Tuesday, 05 May 2009 09:00 |
| As a mature and successful adult running his own business, Mark Hand never imagined that one day he would end up back at the family home | |
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Tuesday, 07 April 2009 01:00 |
| Working carer, sociologist, academic, life coach, columnist, bestselling author, and Oprah’s friend, Martha Beck, was interviewed recently by Carers New Zealand |  |
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Tuesday, 03 March 2009 01:00 |
| Amy Beckett is a working carer and the mother of two teenage daughters, aged 16 and 18. Her story encapsulates so many of the pressing issues faced by Australia’s army of working carers. | |
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Tuesday, 03 February 2009 00:00 |
| For Pam Travis, there are benefits to being a stay-at-home working carer, but getting free time for yourself is not one of them. | |
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Tuesday, 02 December 2008 00:00 |
| Chanakarn loves her mother Yanisa, 86, ‘and I would never in a million years consider putting her into a nursing home’ but having her living at home is putting enormous emotional and financial strain on her to the point where she feels she is facing complete exhaustion. | |
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Tuesday, 04 November 2008 00:00 |
| Darrel Chappel is a journalist trying to find ways to work at home while caring for his wife, Cindy, who has bipolar disorder. | |
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Thursday, 02 October 2008 11:14 |
 Thomas Markham has a double caring role. During his working week he supports people living with HIV/AIDS in a community setting in Sydney; at night and on weekends he cares for a friend with the condition. |
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Tuesday, 02 September 2008 11:52 |
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 As regular readers of Work ‘n’ Care will know, this year has been my ‘annus horribilis’ - nursing my beloved son through cancer which ravaged his young body, ultimately taking his life on June 25, four days short of his 25th birthday.
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Tuesday, 05 August 2008 00:00 |
| Patricia* fell into caring through a run of coincidences. But despite the challenges that lay ahead she did everything she could to provide the children she cared for with every opportunity for a life filled with a love. | |
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Tuesday, 01 July 2008 22:01 |
 Ray has spent many years working as a mental health professional. But like most other carers, he was never prepared for the role he was coming to play as a carer for his partner of 33 years.
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Tuesday, 03 June 2008 13:07 |
| Allan Leach, 67, drives a school bus at Cundletown, NSW, near Taree. At home, he cares for wife Lorraine, also 67, who is very disabled by extensive osteoporosis and a bad back. |  |
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Tuesday, 06 May 2008 10:57 |
 This month’s carer’s story is by MaryLou Carter, secretary of the Carers Alliance political party, which was registered in 2007 to contest the federal election under the motto, ‘making the personal political’.
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Tuesday, 01 April 2008 13:27 |
 There’s lots to look after on a farm, especially when the farmer is also a freelance graphic designer and author and cares for a son with cerebral palsy and developmental delay. The names in this story have been changed for family privacy and legal reasons.
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Tuesday, 29 January 2008 04:31 |
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 When her father died suddenly two years ago, Colleen was unexpectedly thrown into the role of being the primary carer for her older sister, Margaret, who has paranoid schizophrenia.
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Tuesday, 04 December 2007 06:06 |
 As a husband and a father, Isaac cares for his family very much. But it is only recently that this 33-year-old web designer began to think of himself differently. He now understands what it means to be a carer.
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Monday, 05 November 2007 19:00 |
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 Working carer Jean Tops is a lifelong family carer for her 38-year-old daughter, Moya, who is deaf, blind, diabetic and profoundly dependent from the effect of the Rubella virus.
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Monday, 01 October 2007 18:00 |
 Higher School Certificate exams are just around the corner for Amanda, and she really doesn’t know how she is going to cope.
There is very little time to study and in fact even getting to school on most days is a struggle when her mum is ill.
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Monday, 03 September 2007 18:00 |
 When Riley met Amanda, he instantly fell for her madcap, high energy, crazy way of dealing with life. She was a bundle of laughs, unpredictable and offbeat, yet intelligent, loving and kind – the perfect girlfriend.
He could have had no idea that three years down the track he would be her main carer as she struggled with mental illness.
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Monday, 02 July 2007 18:00 |
 Paul Olivieri is pushing 70 and doesn’t know who will look after his son, Marcus, 39, when he is gone. Marcus has both an intellectual and a physical disability and is unable to care for himself.
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Monday, 04 June 2007 18:00 |
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When Debbie asked for a transfer from a regional area to the city so her son could access an intensive program her employer agreed. However four months down the track she’s still looking for appropriate after school care and wonders how other carers cope when trying to work or return to work.
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Monday, 30 April 2007 18:00 |
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John Hess feels blessed to have had his mother, Mary, living in a unit just down the street from him for the last few years. He has been able to give her the physical help and emotional support she has needed as she ages – but he knows there will come a time in the not-too-distant future when he will have to make a decision about accepting residential aged care for his 86-year-old mum.
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Monday, 02 April 2007 18:00 |
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In her twenties, Jenny London's world held the promise of all the happiness, financial ease and fun that go hand in hand with the good life.
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Tuesday, 13 March 2007 03:48 |
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Jono, as he is affectionately known to millions, has returned to Sydney with his wife Margot and children Oscar, 13 and Emily, 10, to be closer to his 81-year-old mum, Sylvia.
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Monday, 02 October 2006 19:00 |
My son Dominic who has Down Syndrome has grown into a delightful young man. He is still attending school and is in Year 10. The class is an IO and IM mix (support class for students with intellectual disability) with mainstreaming for electives. Dominic is doing woodwork, visual arts and agriculture. He is very happy at school and loves the social interaction.
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Monday, 04 September 2006 19:00 |
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Daniel* lives two hours drive away from his mother and works full time. He is the closest family member to his mother and when her health began to decline, he was thrust into the role of caring from a distance. His biggest problem though was his lack of knowledge of the aged care system. This is Daniel’s story.
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Monday, 31 July 2006 19:00 |
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Samantha’s mother had been assessed as eligible for a place in a nursing home through annual assessments by the Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT) – a necessary requirement to determine eligibility. This year Samantha arranged for the annual review secure in the knowledge that her mother had been assessed as eligible in three previous assessments.
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Tuesday, 04 July 2006 10:00 |
My daughter was assessed as having mild autism at four years of age. She is now eight and I call her Supergirl. No-one provided me with any information on autism or developmental delays and what that meant for her or me. I received no information on therapies or what we could do to help her. It seemed I was just expected to cope with no support.
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Tuesday, 06 June 2006 10:00 |
I am a single Mum with two children, a son and a daughter. My son who is 12 years old has Klinefelter’s Syndrome, a chromosomal disorder which causes him mild behavioural and delay problems. However, he’s mobile and can look after himself pretty well. I’m a pretty alert mother and, fortunately, I found out he had Klinefelter’s when he was quite young. Often, boys are not diagnosed until they reach puberty and I know things have turned out better for my son because his condition was discovered early in his life. He goes to a regular school learning in a support unit.
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Tuesday, 04 April 2006 10:00 |
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I have great respect for employers who support their workers who are also carers. Mine is a different story. I worked in aged care and have done so for the past 20 years and love every moment. I also care for my 86 year old mother and 85 year old stepfather. My mother lost the sight in her left eye and her right eye has a cataract so her visibility is very poor.
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Tuesday, 07 February 2006 10:00 |
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I have been working for On-Focus Inc, a disability support organisation at Casino in Northern NSW since May 1998. I have a daughter with spina bifida – she’s 22 now – and an ageing mother. I have been here now for seven and a half years and wouldn’t have been here that long if it wasn’t a good place to work. My employer Vivienne Phillips has been very supportive of my situation.
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Tuesday, 20 December 2005 10:00 |
My father died recently and my mum is developing dementia. I'm the sole carer for her which has been difficult as we have not had a good relationship. My mother never accepted me as a lesbian. I have no sibling support so her care was left up to me and my partner. Given my mother’s lack of acceptance of us as a couple I didn’t expect my partner’s help, but she has been very supportive.
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Tuesday, 06 December 2005 10:00 |
Caring for someone and working at the same time can be stressful and isolating. Without supports in place it is easy to bring the pressures of the working day home, creating even more stress. Working carer Belinda is a sole parent for a daughter with special needs. She also assists in the care of another family member. She has found it helpful to set up a formal peer support system at work. This is her story.
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Tuesday, 29 November 2005 10:00 |
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It is inevitable that your role as a working carer will end or change at some point. When caring ends you may want or need to reconsider your working life. You may be able to join an employment support program at Centrelink, and look for more or different work. Coping with emotions about your change of caring role at the same time as you are changing your work situation can be challenging. Working carer Stacy Hughes has faced all of these issues.
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Tuesday, 08 November 2005 10:00 |
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Working women who have children with disabilities often struggle to find suitable work, and when they do become employed, find that it is difficult balancing the responsibilities of both work and care. Some find part time work in organisations that are supportive of their situation. In this article, working carer Jenny Salgo offers tips to parent carers with young children. They are based on her experience of working in the human services area and raising her children, one of whom has a disability.
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Tuesday, 01 November 2005 10:00 |
Working carers often seek part time work to better enable them to balance work and care. But part-time jobs are hard to come by. This article investigates the option of job sharing, where a full time position is held by two people. It is based on the experience of working carer Anne-Maree Newbold, who shares her story with us.
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Tuesday, 25 October 2005 05:15 |
When Donna Smith was growing up her mother cared for her. Now the roles are reversed and Donna is caring for her mother. And in a further reflection of the intergenerational nature of caring Donna’s daughter is also helping with the care of her grandmother. This is her story.
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Tuesday, 18 October 2005 10:00 |
My life was fairly normal. In 1987 I met my husband; we moved in together and were planning our future at a leisurely pace. Phil started having funny “turns”, he was experiencing some stress at the time and this is what we put it down to. However in June, 1988 he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and out lives turned upside down. He underwent surgery and radiation therapy and told it could return in five,10 or 30 year’s time.
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CARER STORIES
