Expanding the reach and impact of ‘CarerHelp’: Enabling underserved family carers and support workers to care for a person with an advanced disease

We are delighted to announce that CarerHelp has been funded for a further three years by the Commonwealth Department of Health through their National Palliative Care Project grant round. The primary aim of the funding is to ensure that CarerHelp is accessible and able to reach a diverse population of Australian family carers including

 Carers whose primary language is not English
  Carers who identify as being from a different cultural group (such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, refugee and migrant groups, or people born overseas)
 Carers who have poor literacy
 Carers who are vision or hearing impaired and may require their information in a different format
 Carers who are unable or unlikely to use the internet for information and may prefer to receive that information through a support person or cultural leader

Associate Professor Mark Boughey at The Centre for Palliative Care, St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne will lead the CarerHelp Diversity project and Professor Jennifer Tieman at Caresearch, Flinders University will partner to provide significant input into the development, creation and dissemination of CarerHelp Diversity. CarerHelp Diversity will run until June 2023.

CarerHelp Diversity will involve developing a National Reference Group of key stakeholders that represent a range of diverse populations as well as substantial consultation with community groups. The project will also conduct a scoping study to ensure that CarerHelp links to relevant quality resources that are already available for diverse groups, identifies gaps in resources and develops new resources that meet the needs of carers from diverse populations.

We want all carers to be able to receive the right information at the right time in the right format for them to feel better prepared for caring for a partner, relative or friend at the end of life.