CanRevive Inc, has been awarded a grant from the Cancer Institute NSW that will ultimately help people with Chinese backgrounds find appropriate palliative care services.

This funded project ‘Light in the Darkness – Information and Resources for Palliative Care CancerPatients and their Families with Chinese Background’ will focus on collecting the evidence which affects Chinese cancer patients and their carers/families accessing palliative care services. The development of the culturally and linguistically appropriate information kit on palliative care will enable the target clients to be aware of the services.

Many Chinese people associate palliative care with end-of-life care. With the fear and taboo of talking about death, it is not easy for them to receive palliative care service. They do not even know how palliative care can help them with better quality of life during their cancer journey. The project “Light in the Darkness” aims to raise awareness and knowledge of palliative care and clarify misconceptions among these people.

CanRevive will be holding a series of information sessions targeting the Chinese cancer patients and their carers residing in Central & Eastern, Southern, South-Western and Northern Sydney regions, with the aims to raise the awareness and knowledge of palliative care service.

A culturally appropriate questionnaire will be distributed during the information sessions to collect evidence of cultural & language barriers in accessing palliative care services. In addition to quantitative survey, focus interviews will be arranged with the patients/their carers in palliative care stage. Based on the findings, a culturally and linguistically appropriate information kit will be produced and distributed.

CanRevive works in partnership with the Australian Chinese Medical Association (ACMA) and Calvary Health Care Kogarah as well as the local stakeholders to enhance community engagement on this project. Prof. Danforn Lim, the President of ACMA and our Clinical Advisor for CanRevive, has been involved in the research project as the Principal Investigator and also taken an active role to help in concept design, ethics application, developing the culturally appropriate questionnaire and providing supervision and guidance to our research officer within the team.