Sometimes young people just want to have a chat. But if you’re too unwell to meet your friends, how do you get together with your mates? One of Ireland’s top cancer charities now runs a telephone support group for teenagers with cancer – and it’s rapidly become a big success.
CanTeen Ireland describes itself as ‘Ireland’s young people’s cancer support group’. It supports young people who have or have had cancer (along with their families and friends) in dealing with such an illness so early in their lives.
Evelyn Griffith, the charity’s Group Co-ordinator, has just returned from a trip to Alton Towers with 40 young people – a spectacular biennial event that complements the day-to-day work that CanTeen does across the country. She is happy to talk about how telephone conferencing is being introduced to the CanTeen community.
"IT'S SO NICE TO BE ABLE TO LINK IN WITH PEOPLE IN HOSPITAL"
“When we heard that teleconferencing was being offered to selected charities in Ireland, we considered it for a while. We have a national group for teenagers, and thought – ‘wouldn’t it be nice for them to be able to chat?’” she says.
The result has been the formation of a group telephone meeting that aims to reach those who might not otherwise be able to connect with the charity. “We do have regular face-to-face meetings, but some people can’t make them. This could be down to geography - or if they are on treatment at the time, some might be too unwell, or in hospital. It’s so nice to be able to link in with people in hospital,” she says.
"A RELAXED CHAT BETWEEN A GROUP OF TEENAGERS"
In contrast to many of the formal, chaired and agenda-driven meetings that occur across the Community Network wires, this group takes the form of a relaxed chat between a group of teenagers. Evelyn acts as a moderator, but tries to stay in the background. “I’ll contact them beforehand to see if they are available, and when the call starts I’ll run through the icebreakers, as per the training,” she explains. “But after that it’s over to them. They might have a conversation about CanTeen, or a chat about cancer – if something has happened recently such as our conference I might ask them what they thought of that, and I’ll interject if required, or answer questions. But I try to take a back seat.”
"TELECONFERENCING HAS CLEARLY BEEN RECEIVED ENTHUSIATICALLY"
“One of my big surprises is that people who you think might be quiet are often the most chatty!” she laughs. “On the phone it can be a lot more informal – there’s no awkward eye contact.”
It’s early days for the charity, but the concept of teleconferencing has clearly been received enthusiastically both by volunteers and beneficiaries.
“We’re planning on training teenagers to take part in a hospital visiting programme, and we’re very keen to keep the phone groups going alongside this,” says Evelyn. She agrees that the possibility of the young people themselves training as discussion moderators is an interesting one, offering them a good skill for the future.
"COMMUNITY NETWORK IS A GREAT FACILITY"
“I’d highly recommend Community Network,” Evelyn concludes. “They’ve always been available any time we wanted – they’re very helpful and we’ve been very happy with the operators.”
“I know other similar groups have thought that it’s a great idea, but have thought that it might be too much of a commitment for them. But the training was good and so quick – we thought it would take up lots of time, but no. It’s a great way of doing things. Community Network is a great facility.”
