Most resources for brain cancer are focused on diagnosis and treatment. Often they don’t have very specific information about living with a brain cancer diagnosis. A group of Victorian health professionals and patients recognised this gap and decided to design something to better support people living with brain cancer after their diagnosis, and after treatment. Although some content in this resource is specific to Victoria, the majority of the booklet is relevant for those Australia wide.
Why is ‘Building the Bridge to Life with
Brain Cancer’ important?
This is a resource about getting back to life. It’s about finding information relevant to your situation, hearing from others who have been there and getting some tips to help you live the best life you can with this diagnosis. Building the Bridge to Life with Brain Cancer has been designed for you in collaboration with people in your situation, family members, health professionals and medical specialists.
For People with Brain Cancer
The idea of this resource is to dip in and out, rather than read it all through like a book. Start by looking at the contents page and see what topics or sections spark your interest. Start there. There are many personal stories and helpful tips from people living with brain cancer throughout the resource, they also might be a good place to start.
All the checklists and worksheets can be downloaded in the further resources link.
For Health Professionals
Building the Bridge to Life with Brain Cancer has been created in partnership with patients, families and neuro-oncology health professionals. The resource designed is as a navigator to the challenges and issues facing people as they begin to re-engage with everyday life after a diagnosis of brain cancer.
This is a survivorship resource, a guide to help people understand some of the long term impacts of the diagnosis, what might help, who might help and how they can take action to live their best possible life with brain cancer. We hope that this guide will augment your practice and reinforce those conversations you are having with your patients and their families throughout and beyond treatment.
Building the Bridge to Life with Brain Cancer will not cover every aspect required, but it is a robust start. Being co-designed with consumers, means that it is written and formatted in the style they wanted and has prioritised their challenges with the information they felt was most important to know.
Hard copy of the resource can be requested via buildingthebridge@austin.org.au or downloaded from the website as a full resource or section by section.
Family and Friends
Much of the information in Building the Bridge to Life with Brain Cancer will be relevant and helpful for you. Additionally, at the end of sections 1 to 4 there are pages highlighted in pink. These pages contain information specific to family and friends.