The sandwich generation: Australians caring for both their kids and their parents

They're called the sandwich generation – the generation of Australians caring for both their ageing parents and their children.

But experts say those squeezed between full-time work, looking after elderly parents and raising their kids could be placing their own welfare at risk.

About 1.5 million middle-aged Australians are "sandwiched" between caring for both their parents and their children.

National Care Management managing director Dr Peter Hanley said our ageing population meant more people aged in their 40s and 50s would "feel pressure from all sides".

"There are many families where the primary carer is juggling multiple roles – a job, their own kids, their ageing parent. Often, family carers put their own health and wellbeing at risk," Dr Hanley said.

Carers ACT's Lisa Kelly said unpaid carers did a "remarkable job of balancing a range of different stresses and pressures in their lives", but often did so at their own expense.

"Some of the things that they face is just finding time for the necessities of family life, time for shopping, time for taking care of themselves, time for taking care of their own health needs, the things most of us providing care take for granted, as well as providing the care for the people in their family who require that extra assistance," Ms Kelly said.

She said while services like the National Disability Insurance Scheme and My Aged Care provide support to the people who need care, the people providing that care for free are often left to shoulder the burden alone.

"Unpaid carers save the community an enormous amount of money and they carry an enormous load and they can only do that if they're supported, they're skilled, they're resilient and they've got some ability to have some time out and look after themselves a little bit. We've got lots of carers who neglect their own health needs because they just don't have time to do that and the strain and the stress is enormous," she said.

For Jianfei Gong, caring is a 24-hour-a-day job.

Raising two young boys with special needs and helping to care for her husband's ailing father has taken its toll on the working mum.

Before she gets out the door some mornings, she might have defused several meltdowns, changed her son's clothes several times or prepared several different breakfasts.

"It's very hard. I get very little time to myself, we need to juggle the caring, the house, the work," Mrs Gong said.

Caring is, for her, a labour of love, but she acknowledged she neglected herself in the process.

"I'd love some quiet time for myself, that would be lovely," Mrs Gong said.

Ms Kelly said offering unpaid carers support and encouragement as a community could help alleviate the burden.

"Just even acknowledging and recognising that one in eight people provides unpaid care to different members of their family or to neighbours and friends and offering them some help and support," she said.