Towards well-being — exploring the experiences of working-age family carers in a group counselling

Informal care work provided by family members and significant others is a vital resource alongside the formal care system. This doctoral dissertation in industrial engineering and management demonstrates that the informal care work performed by working-age family carers represents humanly sustainable work, supported in part by counselling.

Focusing on the often-overlooked experiences of mothers acting as family carers for children with special needs, the study examines the meanings they attach to informal care work, their perceived (work) well-being, and the counselling support they receive. The findings reveal that informal care work is not merely a private responsibility, but demanding, societally valuable work that generates health, everyday continuity, and quality of life at the intersection of paid employment and personal life.

The interview data collected after the counselling process brought previously unarticulated experiences of informal care as work into the open. Counselling functioned not only as a supportive framework that illuminated the vulnerability of carers' well-being—particularly regarding personal space, life balance, and personal boundaries—but also as a driving force for change, helping carers structure their situation and identify necessary adjustments.

Ultimately, this research challenges conventional perspectives to evaluate the worth of work beyond its purely economic significance. It underscores the need to examine more comprehensively what forms of work are recognised, supported, and valued in society, and under what conditions demanding work can be performed in a humanly sustainable manner.