The 5am Shift and the School Bell
Mere is 16 and lives in a three-bedroom state house with her mum, her nan (78, recovering from a hip replacement) and two brothers, aged 9 and 6. Mum works rotating shifts as an aged-care worker and has just moved onto the 5am–1pm roster. Since then Mere has taken over the school run, after-school care and dinner four nights a week. Her attendance has dropped from 94% to 71% in one term. The school nurse notes Mere has lost 3 kg since February, reports headaches, sleeps about five hours a night and has been skipping lunch because she says "there's nothing at home." In a whānau hui, Mum says the job is "the only income we've got" and Mere insists, "I'm fine, it's just temporary." The school wants to refer Mere to a service but is unsure whether to focus on Mere, on the family load, or on the shift work.
1. Explain how this situation is affecting Mere's hauora. Identify at least three dimensions and explain one tension between Mere's individual wellbeing and the wellbeing of the whānau.
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Physical: five hours' sleep, 3 kg weight loss, headaches and skipped lunch point to a body under sustained load - these are measurable signals, not opinions. Mental and emotional: saying "I'm fine" while attendance falls is a common way young carers mask strain; the risk is that the load becomes normalised and nobody acts. Social: attendance at 71% cuts her off from school, peers and the routines that protect wellbeing. Whānau: the family is functioning, but it is being held up by a 16-year-old.
The tension is real, not imagined. Mere's individual wellbeing needs less load - sleep, food, school - while the whānau's immediate wellbeing needs her load, because Mum's income and Nan's care depend on it. These are not opposites to be balanced by asking Mere to cope better; they are a sign that support around the whānau is missing. A strong answer notes that individual and whānau wellbeing are interdependent, so improving one without the other usually fails - sending Mere to counselling while she still does the 3pm school run changes nothing.
2. Recommend the first action the school and whānau should take, and justify why it comes first. Address why Mere saying "I'm fine" complicates the decision.
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First action: a whānau hui with the school, Mum, Nan and Mere to map the week and find one concrete load reduction - before any referral. Reasoning: the cause is the care and income structure, so the first lever is the structure. Options include the school's after-school (OSCAR) programme for the boys, a NASC assessment for Nan that could fund home help, or Mum asking for a fixed roster. Any of these removes hours from Mere without removing income.
Why not counselling first: a referral individualises a whānau problem and risks Mere concluding she is the problem. It can come later, once sleep and food are addressed.
"I'm fine" complicates the decision because self-report is unreliable under loyalty and fear. Mere may believe it, or may fear that saying otherwise will split the family or cost Mum the job. The response is to weigh evidence (weight, attendance, sleep) alongside her voice, not to override her. Ask what she would change if she could change one thing - that respects her autonomy and often produces the most workable solution.