Q Exchange
COMMNAV: CONNECTING YOU, LIVING WITH AND AFTER CANCER
- Idea
- 2018
Meet the team: COMMNAV: CONNECTING YOU
Also:
- Mary Haughey,
- Fiona Reddick,
- Lynne Smart,
- Sharon Clarke
Our Idea
The Community Navigator programme will offer small group and one-to-one support to patients and carers at the end of their treatment. The group sessions will be delivered by a small team of health professionals and will provide information and support on promoting and enabling a healthier lifestyle after cancer treatment. It will also provide an opportunity to encourage peer support so that people with shared experiences support each other to improve their health and well-being.
What Happens Next?
Following the group sessions, a Community Navigator will support people through a meaningful conversation to identify their holistic needs and co-create a plan to address these needs. These one-to-one sessions will provide an opportunity for patients and carers to identify any other issues / concerns they have following treatment. As part of this assessment, services and resources will be identified that may help to resolve concerns and patients & carers will be signposted accordingly.
COMMNAV Connecting You by
– Providing opportunities for peer support, connecting people with shared experiences
-Ensuring patients and carers are aware of the range of support services available to them in their local community and across the wider Trust area
– Providing patients and carers with the necessary knowledge and skills to make healthier choices after cancer treatment
– Ensuring staff are aware of the range of support services available for patients on discharge
– Providing targeted peer intervention group sessions to enable cancer patients and their carers implement healthier lifestyle choices after cancer treatment
– Identifying unmet needs for people living with and beyond cancer, highlighting and addressing these with relevant stakeholders
How you can contribute
- We have listed our initial thoughts in relation to measuring outcomes below. We would welcome your feedback on these and any suggestions that you may have in relation to our project
- Measures for Improvement
- - The Number of referrals received by COMMNAV
- - The outcome of referrals e.g. How many patients met with the Community Navigator, How many patients were sign posted to community services,
- - Patient uptake of services /support as a result of the consultation with the Community Navigator
- - Patient feedback on the group sessions
- - Impact at 3-6 months after attending group session
- - Staff feedback
- - Patient feedback of the programme
Comments
Charlene Treanor 15 Jun 2018
This is an interesting and worthwhile project. From my research experience working with cancer patients and so-called survivors often they are not aware of all the services that are available to them. I would like to draw your attention to a local cancer charity in NI called Action Cancer, they provide a peer mentoring service of trained volunteers who have a history of cancer to support patients at the point of diagnosis. It might be worth getting in touch with them for your peer support component.
Jacqueline Morton 20 Jun 2018
Charlene thanks for your feedback. We will take account of your feedback
Jacqueline Morton 13 Jun 2018
Hawys thank you for taking time to read and comment on our submission. Peer support takes many guises and we know from our experience that providing opportunities for service users to come together facilitates like minded individuals to come together and connect. This platform will we hope nurture relationships where individuals can determine what there needs are and how they can come together at a time and way that suits these.
Hawys Tomos 12 Jun 2018
Hi there. Great to see your bid involve peer support. I wonder if you could clarify something: you mention that the Community Navigator Programme will “provide an opportunity to encourage peer support” and you later mention “providing opportunities for peer support, connecting people with shared experience”. I’m wondering what exactly it is you mean here? Do you mean signposting people to other, existing peer support offerings, or do you mean that you would help people from the small group sessions to stay in touch, effectively creating new peer support groups? Thank you.
Mary Haughey 12 Jun 2018
Thanks for your feedback Hawys.
In relation to your question re. encouraging peer support, we would hope that the small group sessions will encourage people to connect and stay in touch but also, if people are signposted to other existing groups / programmes that these may also offer peer support opportunities. Hopefully it is something that we will be able to demonstrate / measure through implementation.
Best regards
Mary
Jacqueline Morton 21 May 2018
We are really interested in hearing from any Q member who is considering taking forward a comparable project. It would be great to share the learning.
Thank You
Jacqueline
Mary Haughey 21 May 2018
Thanks Deborah, that's very helpful - we weren't aware of this social enterprise and will definitely follow this up.
Many thanks
Mary
Deborah Shaffer 20 May 2018
Are you aware of 'Working with Cancer' a fantastic social enterprise which provides similar support but specifically with regards to employment and return to the workplace (working with employers and employees alike). Might be worth contacting the Founder Barbara Wilson to find out more.
Jacqueline Morton 21 May 2018
Deborah we really appreciate your comments and will be following up today.
Mary Haughey 17 May 2018
Thanks for your positive feedback Philip. We would be delighted to have local primary care input to the development and roll-out of the project.
Best of luck with your Community of Practice proposal.
regards
Mary
Philip Lusty 16 May 2018
This is a good idea, patient involvement clear and you have your outcomes and measures prepared.
I'd be happy to be involved as local GP and discuss how we can promote awareness of this exciting role of the Community Navigator.
The Palliative care lead in my practice is Dr Gudyma and I am sure she could be persuaded to provide input as well.
Best wishes and thank you for looking at my idea developing Community Of Practice in Portadown initially building closer relationships between Community Pharmacy and General Practitioners in the town.
Jacqueline 17 May 2018
Philip thanks for the feedback and we certainly would welcome both you and your colleagues input into the project. We will take on board everyone's comments in our final submission.
We believe its a really exciting project.
Jacqueline
Mary Haughey 16 May 2018
Thanks for your feedback Pinkie, we are keen to ensure the programme is available to all people affected by cancer.
regards
Mary
Pinkie Chambers 16 May 2018
I think this is a really great idea and peer support after treatment is so important. I think also as we are looking at stratified follow up pathways etc. I think it is great that you are looking at the role of the carer too.
Jacqueline Morton 17 May 2018
Pinkie thank you for your comment. We believe that this role will make a real difference to patient experience and long term outcomes.
Jacqueline
Jacqueline Morton 16 May 2018
Dear Q Members we would love to hear from anyone who has been involved in a similar project.
Thank you
Jacqueline
Jacqueline Morton 16 May 2018
Dear Q Members we would really appreciate you taking 5 minutes to read and provide feedback on our CommNav proposal.
Thank you
Jacqueline
Comments are now closed for this post.