If you know people coping with illness or caregiving, you may wonder what you can do to help.   Even if you don’t know someone in that situation today, as a concerned community member, you may want to help.  Since serious illness and caregiving impacts every aspect of life, often for months or years, there are numerous ways you can offer care and support.     

At Project Compassion, we are here to help you help others.  This orientation page will help you discover ways to:

1.  Learn What Others Need

Many people do not know how to respond when they discover friends or neighbors are living with a serious illness.  Here are some helpful resources on our website for learning about what people living with illness and caregiving are facing:     

You will find helpful resources about illness and about caregiving.

• The Resources section offers printable information and a Resource Guide to organizations and websites focused on illness and caregiving.  Check out information specific to different types of illnesses and caregiving for people of different ages using the resources there.  Be sure to read “Finding and Evaluating Resources on the Internet” at the beginning of the Resource Guide to help you get started. 
• Be sure to read “Finding and Evaluating Resources on the Internet," an article found at the beginning of the Resource guide. 
• Read “Offering Emotional and Spiritual Support for People Living with Illness.”

2.  Do What You Enjoy Doing With Others

For people living with illness or caregiving, having community support makes a big difference.  You may know of people facing illness or caregiving in your network of friends and family, your neighborhood, faith community, workplace, school or civic group.  Even when people have access to healthcare or paid services, there is no substitute for caring support from friends and neighbors.

Here are some steps you can take to offer care and support:

• Join a Support Team.  Support teams are coordinated groups of friends or neighbors that offer practical, emotional, spiritual and quality of life support for people living with illness and caregiving. 
• If you are in the Triangle area of NC, you can volunteer to join a Support Team organized by Project Compassion.  To learn more about Support Teams or to refer a friend or family member, click here.  To volunteer, click here.
• If you are interested in creating specialized support for African Americans living in Durham, Orange, Chatham or Wake counties, you can volunteer to join Circles of Care.  To learn more about Circles of Care, click here.  To volunteer, click here.
• If you are outside of Durham, Orange and Chatham counties, NC, you can purchase Project Compassion’s Support Team Guidebook to learn how to start a team.  Since organizing a team involves some facilitation skills, you may want to join forces with other friends or community leaders who want to care using a team approach.  In addition to the Guidebook, Project Compassion also offers trainings on creating and sustaining teams. Check out Support Team Development.
• Coordinate support online.  You and your friends can create a free online community calendar to coordinate support.  At Project Compassion, we partner with Lotsa Helping Hands to provide this free service.  Click here to learn how it works:  
  http://project-compassion.lotsahelpinghands.com/caregiving/home.
• Create Your Own Volunteer Opportunity.  As you talk with friends or family members who may benefit from support, ask them if there are one or two things they would really enjoy doing if they had the time and energy.  Then ask them if there are one or two things they have to do that take up their time and energy, keeping them from doing what they would enjoy.  Offer to help if you can.  For example:   “Mary, it sounds like you really miss going to your art class on Saturday afternoons but right now that’s the only time you have to run errands.  I’d be glad to run errands for you once (or twice) a month so you can go to class.  That way you could see your friends and take a break.”

 
3.  Learn Advocacy Skills

When someone lives with illness or caregiving, advocacy has never been more important.   Unfortunately, being a patient or caregiver often requires people to be at their best when they feel at their worst.  By learning how to advocate effectively for others, you will:  

• help people understand their choices and make them clearly known
• help prevent medical errors
• help others get the best care available
• be prepared so you will be able to advocate effectively for yourself when needed

Here are resources available to help you improve your patient advocacy skills:

• Read Tiffany Christensen’s Top 10 Tips and Tricks for Navigating the Healthcare Maze.
• Get a copy of “Finding Your Voice in the Healthcare Maze: A Patient Advocacy Workbook” by Tiffany Christensen.  Based on Project Compassion’s Finding Your Voice workshop for patients, caregivers and community members, this workbook offers tips, strategies and exercises to “bring the workshop home.” 
• Participate in a Finding Your Voice workshop.  If you live in NC, there may be a free Finding Your Voice consumer workshop near you.  To learn more go to Finding Your Voice. 
• Tell organizations you know about Finding Your Voice.  Refer them to Project Compassion’s website for more information.

4.  Make a Real Difference

Part of being in a community means finding ways to make a real difference.    We encourage you to find ways you can contribute.  Here are some ideas: 

• Spread the word about the importance of community support.  Talk with friends and neighbors about the issues you learn about through Project Compassion.  Refer your friends and neighbors to our website, connecting them with our shared mission.
• Volunteer to do what you love to do.  Whether you join a Support Team or make your own volunteer opportunity, find a way to offer support for others.  You’ll find you will gain so much more than you think you give. 
• Make a donation to support others living with illness and caregiving.  By making a donation to Project Compassion, you ensure that others living with illness will have access to important resources and services. To learn more about the impact of a donation, click here.

We hope these resources and ideas will help you as you support others on the journey with illness and caregiving. We encourage you to explore our website fully, subscribe to our e-letter and tell your friends about our resources.  We look forward to having you as part of our Project Compassion community!