CancerCare’s month-to-month workers characteristic acknowledges the important contributions of the numerous client-facing and behind-the-scenes groups that make our free applications and providers doable.
This month, we’re excited to focus on CancerCare’s Pet Help & Wellness Program and Brian M., who oversees and manages the PAW Program.
Title: Brian M.Title: Program ManagerTeam: Pet Help & Wellness ProgramTime with CancerCare: 6 months
What do you do at CancerCare?I’m Program Supervisor for our Pet Help & Wellness Program, which we affectionately name the “PAW Program.” The PAW Program affords monetary help to certified people who’re in energetic therapy and share their residence with a beloved cat or canine, instructional content material that speaks to the particular challenges of caring for a pet if you are present process therapy and entry to CancerCare’s wonderful free applications and providers equivalent to useful resource navigation and help teams.
What’s your favourite factor about your job?I’m actually grateful to be a part of a program that really respects how necessary pets are in individuals’s lives and particularly all of the love and help they offer whereas somebody is present process most cancers therapy.
We simply ran a survey of people that had obtained monetary help from the PAW Program and so many individuals shared that their pets gave them “unconditional love.” It was actually shifting to learn but in addition by no means stunning. A couple of that basically stood out have been:
“My canines are so necessary as a result of they present me unconditional love. They all the time appear to know the way I really feel. Particularly if I am sick, they keep proper by my aspect.”“My pets assist to maintain me calm and decrease my blood stress. They’re all the time excited to see me and supply me with unconditional love. Having a persistent most cancers prognosis makes day by day tougher, and having my pups and gatos round makes life extra satisfying.”“Most cancers is pricey and I do not need to have to decide on about having cash to look after my animals as they offer unconditional love 24 hours a day to me.”
What units CancerCare other than different organizations?Our social employees.
I’m personally very delicate to the concept of “data fatigue.” After a most cancers prognosis, there may be a lot new data being thrown out from so many sources and most of that data is extremely necessary but in addition delivered at a time the place you may be feeling some stage of stress, to say the least. That data may be associated to your present state of well being, future unwanted side effects from therapy, funds, insurance coverage, how a prognosis may have an effect on your job or capability to work, how a prognosis may have an effect on your capability to look after or afford your pet…The checklist goes on. I can solely think about laborious it should be to course of and navigate.
If you name CancerCare’s toll-free Hopeline, you’ll be greeted by the nice and cozy voice of certainly one of our masters-prepared oncology social employees. Our social employees are right here that can assist you deal with a most cancers prognosis and join you with CancerCare’s many applications and providers (like monetary help or help teams). However additionally they achieve this way more. I’ve just lately had only a tiny glimpse into how they go above and past with what we name “Useful resource Navigation.” You don’t need to be navigating all this data that’s coming at you (or a number of the crucial data which will have been missed) alone. Our social employees are right here to assist. And I’ve seen how they’ve additionally performed analysis to determine different applications or providers in native areas, for instance, that may assist and that talk to your particular considerations or wants.
What’s one thing you assume individuals may discover stunning about working at a nonprofit?Folks working for nonprofits know the nonprofit world. We all know what different organizations are on the market and what applications they’ve to supply. And I feel for individuals who don’t work within the nonprofit world…it may be actually complicated to navigate. The identical goes for the animal welfare world. Don’t ever really feel like it’s important to type by that wilderness alone to see what sorts of help applications are on the market. Take a look at CancerCare’s Serving to Hand useful resource information. Or give us a name and communicate to certainly one of our social employees. And stayed tuned within the coming months for a brand new part of the PAW Program that may provide help to discover free and low-cost help to assist care on your pet.
What’s your connection to most cancers?I beforehand labored for one more cancer-focused nonprofit. I discovered a lot there and was all the time humbled by listening to the direct expertise of anybody who was affected by most cancers together with household and caregivers. I’ve had relations with most cancers. And I noticed some small glimpse of what my accomplice and her father went by as he was recognized with head and neck most cancers and he or she was his caregiver.
What’s one nonprofit group in addition to CancerCare that you just’d like to focus on and why?For years, I’ve adopted the work of the Humane Society of america. Similar to the world of most cancers nonprofits, animal welfare nonprofits evolve over time. They do such an unimaginable job advocating for change and unifying the general animal welfare motion to face for higher and extra inclusive practices.