The CarerHelp team at the Centre for Palliative Care (SVHM) have been funded by the Department of Health and Aged Care for three more years to continue to provide online information to support families caring for someone with advanced disease. Launched in 2019, the CarerHelp website and resources have been viewed by over 45,000 Australians. During the next three years, CarerHelp is planning to add resources which target the needs of rural Australians caring for someone at the end of life. In addition, CarerHelp will be offering interactive online information and support sessions to carers across Australia delivered by a health professional.  The focus for these online sessions will be on meeting the needs of carers outside metropolitan cities who have more difficulty accessing specialist palliative care and grief services.

Our partnerships with Flinders University, Grief Australia, and the National Rural Health Alliance will ensure that we are well placed to connect rural carers to information and support empowering them to provide end of life care and to better support families during bereavement.

We are delighted to be able to reach out into rural and regional communities and offer support to families caring for someone at the end of life. We know that having access to information and support means that families will be more prepared for the role of caring. Being prepared improves the experience for both the family and the person being cared for.

CarerHelp already has a range of information and resources that are freely and easily available for use with families. Health professionals can easily print factsheets or templates to give to families to guide them through the stages from diagnosis of advanced disease though to imminent death and bereavement. Alternatively, families can be directed to the website where they can access written information or watch videos of carers talking about their experience or health professionals explaining some key aspects of end of life care.

CarerHelp has a huge range of topics from self-care, preparing finances, symptom management, recognising dying, caring for the dying person, through to funeral planning and managing grief. There are links to other trusted sources and services, lists of helplines, and tips from other families who have been through similar experiences. There are also a range of resources for Australia’s diverse families including, resources in other languages and resources for First Nations families.

We are delighted to embark on a new era of CarerHelp which aims to provide end of life and bereavement information and support to rural families.

We encourage you to have a look at the CarerHelp website and resources and share with the families you work with. We value feedback, so please contact us carerhelp@flinders.edu.au, or directly email one of the project staff: