With the emphasis in this issue on stress, this month’s carer story exemplifies just how stressful combining work and care can really be.

Pauline is a working carer struggling to stay in her job.

Not that she enjoys her production line work – in fact, she hates it and finds it very stressful. But the whole family depends on her income and she has no choice other than to stay employed.

Aged 55, she cares for both her parents, who live at home with her and her husband, Patrick, who is a carpenter.

Over the past year, Patrick has developed a type of repetitive strain injury from years of working with his hands, limiting both the type of jobs he can quote on and the hours of work he can manage to do without being in pain.

“Recently, Pat thought he had recovered enough to take on the replacement of a large rotting wooden deck for a customer,” Pauline said.

“But after a week of constant hammering his hands and arms became so sore and inflamed he couldn’t even manage to do the dishes.

“In fact, he can hardly even move his arms, they are so sore. The doctor has said he has to completely rest them or risk permanent damage.

“As you can imagine, losing that second income has been a total shock to us as over the past year our savings have completely run down because Pat has only been able to work on odd jobs here and there.

“Now, more than ever, the family is reliant on me and I feel under a lot of pressure.”

Pauline works full-time at a factory where she is on a production line and under camera surveillance at all times. If there is a bottleneck at her work station, an alarm starts beeping until it is cleared.

Management has also offered a monthly financial bonus to work groups that achieve set production levels and 100% punctuality, putting further demands on Pauline, who cannot anticipate what problems may crop up at home in the morning before she leaves for work.

“I just can’t avoid being late on some days, so the whole team feels I am letting them down and that is stressing me even more than the job itself,” she said.

“I just have to be on the ball full-time. There is not even a moment to stop and think. There is no way to have a slower day if you haven’t had much sleep or are feeling a bit off colour. It’s all go go go every day and it’s really wearing me down.

“I get home quite stressed and exhausted and then I have a whole new set of problems to deal with. It goes on and on and I never feel I get a chance to rest at all.”

Pauline’s mum has heart problems, which cause frequent bouts of dizziness, shortness of breath, chest pain and a heartbeat irregularity.

Her dad is a war veteran and while physically healthy, he has increasingly developed psychological problems as he gets older. The preblems are clearly related to his time in the defence forces and his horrific war experiences.

“It is nothing to come home at the end of the working day and find him scrunched up under the bed, hiding from some enemy or other,” Pauline said. “At night he wanders around in the dark bumping into things. He tries to be quiet, as he can’t sleep, but it usually wakes the whole household up.

“He can be very paranoid and it is hard to convince him he is in no danger. At other times he can shout a lot and behave quite irrationally. It is very upsetting for us all to see him like that.”

At present, Pauline is determined to keep her parents at home with her for as long as she can.

“When they are both well and functional, there is no problem. We cope alright,” she said. “But there are days when they are both unwell, and that puts me under tremendous strain, especially when Pat can’t help out or even drive the car to do the shopping.

“And all sorts of other things go by the wayside, too. I had planned to have a reunion with a bunch of old girlfriends from my schooldays recently but had to cancel as I just couldn’t find anyone to come in and care for my family for the long weekend.

“Pat and I do have three beautiful grown children, but they all live in other cities and have young families of their own. You can’t expect them to fly over at the drop of a hat to care for their grandparents as well. It’s just not fair or even affordable – and we’d have nowhere to put them, anyway, as we are all pretty cramped as it is."