The European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research supports the Sustainable Development Goals
Informal caregiving is an important part of the long-term care system not only in Upper Austria. Unequal availability of services, staff shortages, co-payments for professional care and societal expectations can lead to informal carers providing care despite negative effects on their own wellbeing.
The expected outcome of this study was to identify the challenges that informal carers face in combining care and employment as a foundation for the further development of appropriate support measures for this specific group of carers.
Apart from a literature review and the quantitative estimation of the number of workers and employees who (have to) combine employment and care responsibilities, the study is based on 19 interviews with informal carers who are faced with the challenge of combining informal care and employment. They often have to reduce their working hours, they deal nevertheless with additional stress at work and in the caring relationship, and they face additional financial and psychological burden. Six expert interviews were carried out with professionals who are supporting informal carers to gain insight in ways of cooperation in care, existing support measures and ways for further improvement.
The results of these interviews and good practice examples from Germany, Ireland and the UK served to propose a number of recommendations for policy and practice to enable informal carers to combine informal caregiving with employment. Results will be used by the Chamber of Labour for Upper Austria to develop future strategies and support mechanisms for informal carers in employment.
The European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research supports the Sustainable Development Goals
