Anti-burnout club set up for 'sandwich generation'

A woman from East Sussex has set up an anti-burnout club to help those struggling to juggle work, children and caring for elderly parents.

Christened the "sandwich generation", it is a demographic that continues to grow, said Bex Spiller, from Heathfield, who runs a series of workshops across the South East.

She says she has witnessed how the strain of daily life is not only affecting people's mental health, but also proving a major problem for businesses in terms of recruitment and retention of senior and highly skilled staff.

Ms Spiller added that more and more people were taking long-term sick leave from work in order to cope.

"There's pressure to be there 100% for every spinning plate," she told Politics South East.

"You can't let one drop, because that might mean a child not getting attention, a parent not being cared for, or your job suffering."

So she stages talks and provides online resources for people suffering burnout.

"It isn't the same as just stress, it's the feeling of being utterly depleted with nothing left to give."

Ms Spiller explained that symptoms include waking up absolutely exhausted, despite having had a good night's sleep, feeling snappy with the people you love or not having the same passion for the things you once enjoyed.

"I think it's almost impossible to ask the sandwich generation to do it all by themselves, and we need to look - in a societal, structural way - at how can we actually support what is a fairly new problem," she said.

Adult social care already costs councils in the South East hundreds of millions of pounds, and, with public services stretched, more families are stepping in to fill the gaps.

Bex Hamilton is doing just that. She is one such member of the 'sandwich generation' her namesake is trying to help.

She has moved in with her parents, near Sevenoaks in Kent, to help care for them.

Her father has Parkinson's disease and her mother is recovering from a stroke.

Alongside this, she runs her own business and is raising three children.

"Some days you just can't get out of bed and feel completely drained," she said.

Drawing on her background as a design researcher, Ms Hamilton is now using her own experience to look for solutions.

She is developing a living "green room", a space designed to calm the nervous system using natural light, plants and specific materials.

The room will be used for classes like yoga, and as an example for planners and architects to view and potentially incorporate into future office designs.

"It's somewhere you can go and sit for 10 minutes, breathe, and let your body reset," she said.

• If you're affected by any of the issues in this article you can find details of organisations who can help via BBC Action Line.

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