Offering Support
If you are dealing with cancer or a member of your family, it can be difficult to deal with the traumatic experience and understanding how to offer the best support possible.
Jayne Molyneux, Healthcare Manager at Bupa, offers her advice on how to deal with the physical and emotional aspects of cancer as well as chatting to Female First about Bupa’s Oncology Support Team.
- Exercise is one of the most important things you can do to improve your health and your mental outlook. Keep active. Get out for some fresh air and go for a walk. This is hugely important.
- Preparing for your appointments is really important. Think about questions you want to ask when you see your consultant and write them down. Take someone with you because you might not remember everything that’s being said.
- You may be feeling a wide range of emotions. There isn’t one standard response. It’s ok to feel a mixture of things.
- By all means do research and become an expert on your illness. But check with your GP or specialist nurse that you’re using reliable websites and getting the right information.
- Join a social or support group with people who understand what you’re going through.
- Your local Citizens Advice Bureau or the Department for Work and Pensions can show you how to claim disability living allowance and/or advise you on your rights as an employee. Talk to your employer about having a workplace assessment as it can help you find some simple ways to make working life more manageable without feeling you’re different to everyone else.
- Talk, talk, talk to your partner. Strong, open relationships will help you feel supported and better able to cope. If you’re finding a sexual relationship with your partner difficult, consider other ways to be intimate together.
- If you’re having problems sleeping, it’s important not to associate bed with anxiety about not sleeping. So don’t go to bed if you’re not tired and try to get up if you find yourself lying awake.
- If you’re suffering from fatigue, be smart about how you do things: shop when it’s quiet, take short breaks and do the things you enjoy in smaller, more manageable chunks.
1. You are part of Bupa’s Oncology Support Team. What is your role?
My role is to make sure that we’re continuously improving the service we provide to our customers who have cancer, by making sure they get the best quality care at the right time, in the right place for them.
2. What do you offer at Bupa’s Oncology Support Team?
We support people with the physical, emotional, social and financial effects of cancer. The team is made up of specialist oncology nurses and advisors and is available to all Bupa customers who are diagnosed with cancer. We help people to navigate their cancer treatment and discuss all the choices that are available to them, appreciating that each person’s circumstances are unique. Each customer gets a dedicated team member to speak to, who can help by booking all their appointments, giving them practical advice and directing them to further help for any problems they might have.
This support begins from the day of diagnosis and continues after the person has finished their treatment, for as long as they need.
3. You have a background in nursing. Have you always wanted to work in this area?
Caring for people affected by cancer is a really rewarding area to work in. There are lots of new and emerging treatments and support services available and it’s so important to help people through this difficult time so they can concentrate on their own health.
4. What does Bupa offer for people with cancer?
Bupa health insurance provides access to private treatment and diagnostic services. For someone with cancer this might mean that they get a fast diagnosis, begin treatment quickly, and get their own room in a private hospital, and access to drugs and treatments that aren’t available on the NHS.
Bupa’s Cancer Promise means that Bupa will cover members’ cancer treatment at every stage, even if it spreads or if it is incurable. Bupa also promises that there will be no financial or time limits on people’s cancer care (if cancer is covered part of their policy), meaning that they can be confident that they will be fully covered throughout their treatment.
5. How does it help to support them?
As well as funding people’s treatment and care all the way through, the Oncology Support Team provides help, guidance and support to people when they need it.
We give people practical advice on all sorts of things, from preparing for their consultations, to how to cope with fatigue or what to do if their favourite foods don’t taste the same anymore.
We take on the practical aspects for them, such as coordinating all their medical appointments, so they have one less thing to worry about. Some people really value the opportunity to talk to someone outside their family and social circle. Some even choose not to tell anyone that they have cancer, so their Bupa advisor is the only person who knows, apart from their medical team. We recognise that a cancer diagnosis can have an enormous emotional impact on a person with cancer and their family, and we have been specially trained to support people with this.
The support we provide doesn’t end when treatment finishes. Many people face unexpected challenges after cancer treatment, such as physical side effects, social problems, emotional and financial difficulties. We are there to help them through all of this. We also help people to live a healthy lifestyle, which can improve their recovery.
6. Does Bupa offer support for families?
The Oncology Support Team is there for members’ families as well as the patient. Relatives often need help too.
A question that we commonly get asked is “How do I tell my children?” so we have produced a set of booklets for children, called I Know Someone With Cancer, to help them understand what their mum or dad (or other relative) is going through. People have found these really useful as there was nothing else like them out there before.
7. Do you think that it is important to build a relationship with the families? How does this help?
It is important that we understand that families play a big part for our members, and are there to help them through this difficult time. This can help our members by strengthening their support network, and help keep everyone informed by answering difficult questions that they might not get to ask anyone else.
To download the cancer survivorship ebook visit: www.bupa.co.uk/beyondcancer
Tagged in Health