Episode 023: Getting The Support You Need, On Your Terms
Jul 04, 2018•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode description
Today, I’m super excited to be talking to Ben Smith. Ben is based at the University of New South Wales, in Sydney. He specialises in developing online tools to deal with the mental side of cancer that give you control over the support that you get. Ben also has some fantastic advice on dealing with the fear of cancer coming back, on where you can turn to for professional help, and where cancer caregivers, what can they do to stay sane during this crazy adventure and much, much more. There are so many great actionable takeaways from our conversation today that I promise you you’re going to love it. Here is what we cover:
Why we don't ask for help during cancer
How to get the support you want through online interventions
Where you can turn to for help (face to face and online)
How to deal with fear of cancer recurrence
The importance of a diverse team supporting evidence based outcomes
Carer's roller coaster of emotions and where to get help
and much, much more!
Links
e-TC Express
Ben Smith (Cancer Council)
Australian and New Zealand Urogenital and Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Group
Conquer fear: protocol of a randomised controlled trial of a psychological intervention to reduce fear of cancer recurrence
Mindful Meditation for people with cancer
Cancer Counselling Professionals » Find a Counsellor
Find a local support group - Cancer Council Victoria
Living Well After Cancer program - Cancer Council NSW
CanDo App
Help For Cancer Caregivers
Emily McDowell empathy cards
Finding My Way
PROMPT-Care
Episode 007: How To Use Your Inner Resources To Better Deal With Cancer
Full Transcript
Joe: Ben, when it comes to cancer, like most of us don’t realise that we need help on a psychological level. I know from personal experience that it just doesn’t occur to you to seek help, because it’s cancer, it’s supposed to be hard, you know?
What’s your take on that?
Ben: Well, there’s no doubt that cancer is hard, I can’t take anything away from that. There are definitely ways that it can be made easier. I think people really shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help. As you say, a lot of people don’t necessarily think to do that because they just feel they have to tough out what is an inherently challenging experience. I think, though, in your case, as is typical of a lot of men, they seem to want to be particularly stoic and particularly reluctant to seek help. Certainly, something that I saw in my PhD, which was focused on men with testicular cancer. Although, two thirds of those men reported having unmet needs when it came to support for getting through their cancer experience.
A lot of them were very reluctant to actually go and ask for that help, themselves, or perhaps, yes, it just didn’t occur to them. I think what that highlights is the importance of something that’s becoming increasingly common in management of people affected by cancer these days, which is something called screening for the stress. There are a number of projects happening around the world, and one here in Australia called the Adapt project, where they’re trying to implement routine screening for the stress across the cancer trajectory. They use a very simple tool, a distress thermometer, along with a checklist of items that people may be struggling with. That’s done at various points throughout their treatment and follow-up.
It helps pick out the people who are struggling a bit and what issues they’re struggling with and it helps, I suppose, the caner care team know what issues they can be helping those patients with. As you say, sometimes the people, themselves, don’t realise that clinicians aren’t particularly good at recognising when people need help either. We need ways to routinely being able to identify people who are needing help.
Although, it’s important to acknowledge that not everyone who is distressed as a result of cancer will want...
