Cancer Council Queensland’s Peer Support Program brings trained peer support volunteers into selected treatment facilities to provide support and information to cancer patients, their carers, and family members.
What Peer Support Volunteers provide
All Peer Support volunteers have had a close, personal experience with cancer as a patient or carer. This experience enables them to provide empathy, understanding, validation, and hope to those currently undergoing a cancer journey.
Peer Support volunteers are trained in supportive communication skills, boundaries, self-care and about Cancer Councill Queensland programs before being placed in a treatment facility.
Peer Support Volunteers provide appropriate emotional and informational support by;
- Providing peer support based on a shared experience
- Reducing feelings of isolation and stigma
- Communicating hope and optimism
- Giving emotional and informational support, and
- Providing information about other supportive services that may be of benefit to the patient or carer.
Peer Support in Treatment Facilities
Peer Support Volunteers are placed in a number of treatment facilities across Queensland. Peer Support Volunteers complement the care provided by the treating oncology team.
The program involves collaboration between Cancer Council Queensland and participating treatment facilities.
If you would like to know whether a Peer Support volunteer is available in the treatment facility you or your loved one are visiting, please contact Cancer Council 13 11 20.
Eligibility
If you are a Queenslander aged 18 and over, and are undergoing treatment in the designated ward at a treatment facility where there is a peer support volunteer, you are eligible for the program.
The availability of a volunteer to speak with you is dependent on volunteer shifts and the demand for the service at the time you are undergoing treatment.
What patients say:
“What really impressed me was that the volunteer included my husband in the conversations and talked to him about how he was doing and asked if there was anything he needed.”
How can I become a Peer Support Volunteer
Anyone interested in becoming a Peer Support Volunteer with Cancer Council Queensland should check out the volunteer opportunities page on our website or call the Cancer Council Queensland Volunteer Hotline on 1300 851 957.
What our volunteers say:
“Thanks to CCQ for giving me the chance to do this and give of my time to help cancer patients through this tough time. I was one of them once and know how much I appreciated the volunteer come visit and support me.”
“Thank you CCQ for allowing me to be a part of your team. It is a job I truly love.”