Personalised Cancer Care and Support in Sandwell and West Birmingham.
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Here to help. Here for you. Here when you need us.
We know that a diagnosis of Cancer can be quite a shock. If you have recently received a diagnosis, are undergoing treatment for cancer, or if you are living after cancer treatment, you do not have to face it alone.
Here in Sandwell and West Birmingham we can offer you the personalised care and support you need to help you through your journey.
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What is personalised care and support?
Personalised care and support means ensuring that your physical, practical, spiritual and emotional health care needs are considered along-side your clinical care. It is important as it helps to identify and alleviate any worries and concerns you may be experiencing as a consequence of your cancer diagnosis and treatment (see “How can personalised care help you).
It is also an opportunity for you to say how you are doing, and for us to help you to get the support you need when you need it most. It helps you to make decisions about your life and is effective in giving you back control at a time when you may be feeling that you have less capacity to cope.
It helps ease the burden of worries so that you can stay focused on your treatment and on being as well as possible. It is care that is tailored to you and one that looks after your health and wellbeing needs.
Importantly, personalised care and support doesn’t just stop when your treatment has finished. We know that for many, worries and concerns don’t just go away after treatment has ended and that this can be a time of concerns about your next steps. You may feel particularly anxious about your diagnosis stability. Personalised care and support can help you to adjust to your ‘new normal’ and help you to live well with the longer term consequences of cancer.
We will continue to be there for you after your treatment and to give you the confidence you need to self-manage; by giving you the knowledge and information you need to get you through. Importantly we will make sure that you know how to get back in touch with your clinical team if you need too for further advice and support. We will also guide you to make healthy lifestyle choices that are good for your physical health and wellbeing.
What does personalised care and support look like in Sandwell and West Birmingham?
Here in Sandwell and West Birmingham we have developed eight pledges that we are working towards in our delivery of personalised care and support to our patients and their carers:
Pledge 1 –You will be allocated a named key worker. This will be a member of your specialist cancer clinical team (usually a Macmillan Cancer Nurse Specialist) who will be a point of contact and support for you thoughout your treatment.
Pledge 2 – You will be offered the opportunity to have an holistic needs assessment and personalised support and care plan so that you have the opportunity to discuss any concerns or worries that you may be experiencing. Undertaken by a member of your specialist clinical team (either a cancer nurse specialist or cancer support worker), this is a supportive conversation that can help to identify your needs and allow for a referral or signposting to specialist teams or agencies as well as information on local resources.
Pledge 3 –You will be offered a treatment summary which will be shared not only with you, but also with your General Practitioner (GP). This means that your GP will be fully informed of your diagnosis, the treatment you have been given, as well as the long term management plan that has been agreed for you by your specialist clinical team.
Pledge 4 – You will be offered health and wellbeing advice and support so that you know where to go to get help, and feel confident in your self-management during and after your treatment.
Pledge 5 – We will provide a valuable source of reliable information, advice and guidance about local and national support organisations that you can trust and look too for help and support. Click here to find out more about our cancer information, support and signposting services.
Pledge 6 – We will do all possible to tailor your personalised care so that it is right for you, regardless of your background or beliefs.
Pledge 7 – You will be offered a cancer care review by your GP surgery or nurse within six months of your diagnosis. This means that you will be invited by your local general practice to have a meaningful discussion about your ongoing cancer care and is another opportunity to chat about your personal care and support needs.
Pledge 8 – We will be there for you to listen and respond to any concerns you may have. For more information about personalised cancer care and support please contact the Living with and Beyond Cancer service on 0121 507 3817 or email swbh.livingwithandbeyondcancer@nhs.net.
What can I do to help myself?
Personalised care and support isn’t just about our pledges, it is also about self-managed care – what action you can be taking to help yourself. Self-managed care is about you feeling confident and empowered to put into practice the support and advice you have been given, and to take your own steps and decisions towards improving your overall physical and mental health wellbeing.
We know this is not always easy, especially during treatment, but we also know that often just the smallest of actions can have a huge impact.
For more information about the core elements of personalised care and support we recommend you:
Browse through the support pages via the navigational links below for practical tips and advice about staying well during and beyond cancer treatment.
Visit the Macmillan Web site at https://www.macmillan.org.uk/ find information, advice, articles and further support.
Learn more about Personalised Care and Support by watching this short film clip:
Credit: Cancer Wellbeing London
When can personalised care help?
You may be worried about how your finances will be affected during your treatment especially if you are the main earner in your family.
How we can help We can refer you to the Macmillan Citizens Advice Service. They have a proven track record of helping people to navigate through the benefits system and in 2019 alone made a total annual gain of £6,679,171 for our Black Country cancer patients. This also includes gains made via the Macmillan Grant. Click here for more information.
How you can self-manage This Macmillan Cancer Support information leaflet Help with the Cost of Cancer, contains useful advice and tips about managing your finances and who to turn to for help and support.
You may have worries about coping during treatment, the impact diagnosis will have on loved ones and feeling overwhelmed and anxious.
How we can help We can refer you to the Relate Macmillan Counselling Service. They have the experience and skills to support you in working through your concerns and to give you coping strategies that will help.
How you can self-manage You may not want to be referred to a service for help as this may not feel the right for you at this time. Instead you can access the Cancer Macmillan Support helpline, (0808 808 00 00 seven days a week, between 8am-8pm). The Macmillan Online Community is also a great place to meet people who are going through the same experiences as you.
A common side effect of cancer is fatigue, varying from mild to extreme.
How we can help We can signpost you information resources to help you better understand your fatigue. Click here for more information. We can encourage you to do some simple physical exercise that can help reduce tiredness, or give you numbers for local gentle exercise classes whether that is walking, yoga or swimming.
How you can self-manage You can keep a fatigue diary which helps you to record your daily energy levels. This is a good way of identifying how your treatment affects you. It helps you to identify the times of day when you have more energy so you can better plan your activities. It also helps you to consider what might be affecting your fatigue and to note down your progress.
Feedback
We would welcome any feedback you have about our support service. Click here to tell us what you think – please write FAO of the Cancer Support Service at the top of your message.
If you would like to ask the team a question, you can click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page to fill out the form. Again, please write FAO of the Cancer Support Service at the top of your message.
