Beth Doggett is a specialist cancer navigator with Rare Cancers Australia. In this blog she tells us how she uses the CarerHelp website with her patients and families. The CarerHelp team caught up with Beth at the Cancer Nurses Society of Australia Congress and asked her about her role at Rare Cancers Australia.
Beth, tell us what you do?
I work at Rare Cancers Australia as a specialist cancer navigator. I find myself supporting patients, carers and their loved ones from the very beginning of a diagnosis through to navigating end of life care. My work is very important as I am showing patients and carers that they are not alone. They are heard, and listened too every step of the way.
How did you find out about CarerHelp?
I came across Di from CarerHelp at a conference in 2022, and found out about the work of CarerHelp and realised how this service could really complement my work.
I find on a daily basis we are assisting patients and carers to navigate through the complex area of end of life care. I found I was referring patients out to other services, instead of being able to direct them to one source.
I find being able to access CarerHelp with both the patient and carer, to be wonderfully calming and empowering. I can be speaking with a patient and carer while having the CarerHelp website open, it assists me with talking about this subject in a concise and well summarised way. Then the website is passed along to the family for them to go through at their own pace.
CarerHelp is a wonderful resource providing assistance and guidance for those at a very vulnerable stage in their lives.
Do you think CarerHelp is useful for the group of patients and carers you work with?
CarerHelp definitely is useful for such a wide variety of people we support, as we are an Australia wide service. So I can communicate with patients, while also referring them to this site that they can access at anytime. It provides that warm hug from afar, which is so needed.
CarerHelp also has video’s which are helpful for those who are not keen on spending lots of valuable time reading. I also find that sometimes they might not have the ability to take in what they read so having videos to access is really helpful.
Is there a particular section within CarerHelp that you refer carers too?
This is an interesting question as I honestly use all of the website!
But if I was to narrow it down to two sections of the website, it would be:
- Carer Pathways
- Resources – CarerHelp Knowledge
These are both wonderful sections of the website that I am often speaking to the patient and carer about while I have them on the phone. They are often very thankful that I pointed them in the direction of CarerHelp because it is a resource which can help them feel less overwhelmed as they approach upcoming events. Carers often find communication when faced with death and dying is missing, so this website assists families in feeling less alone and overwhelmed as a result.
If you were to recommend CarerHelp to other health professionals, what would you say?
Let me tell you how I have done it already because I have spoken to other professionals about it, highlighting the need to share new found knowledge.
I find that when I am speaking to a colleague about one thing, we more often than not get onto end of life care and then I begin to speak about CarerHelp and how I utilise the website with patients and carers. I find this is a wonderful way to introduce people to how I use the website to assist with my work.