A new online support network called care2talk.ca was awarded an exhibit space at the 2010 Celebrating Innovations in Health Care Expo. Care2talk.ca is an online chat site for young adults with cancer in Northwestern Ontario, striving to connect patients to local resources and to one another through online chat. This program was specifically developed to support patients of Regional Cancer Care Northwest.

The Health Care Expo is aimed at healthcare professionals as part of the Health Achieve conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. It is one of North America’s largest, most respected healthcare conferences and expos, attracting key speakers including The Honourable Deb Matthews, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care and Lieutenant-General Romeo Dellaire.

“This is a very big honour,” says Liane Kandler, Clinical Psychology PhD Candidate at Lakehead University. “This is an opportunity for people to see what care2talk.ca is and how it will inspire innovative supportive care services.”

“Given the increasing trend toward online services, and the increasing cancer rates in young adulthood, it is arguably the responsibility of healthcare providers to ensure safe and secure services are in place to meet growing demand. Nearly 2.3 million cancer patients worldwide are online, it only seems logical that we are too,” she says.

“Care2talk.ca is a practical, convenient and cost efficient way to reach cancer patients online, who might otherwise have to travel long distances within the region to receive psycho-social care in Thunder Bay,” Kandler explains.

Kandler, Dr. Scott Sellick and the supportive care team at Regional Cancer Care Northwest successfully tested the care2talk.ca program in spring 2010, when cancer patients and survivors were involved in a pilot program. The pilot for care2talk.ca was tested over a ten-week period, allowing cancer patients and survivors from across Northwestern Ontario to connect with one another, as well as local resources, online resources and counsellors through professionallyfacilitated group chat.

“We found out that younger adults, for the most part, need a more convenient way to connect with supportive care services. They prefer to talk from the comfort of their own homes, for example, young parents were able to reach counselors at nine o’clock at night after they’d put their kids to bed,” says Sellick.

“It was an experiment that is now changing the way we plan to deliver supportive care services to cancer patients in the region. The care2talk.ca pilot was a great success, which is why it’s receiving national and international attention, and why we’re expanding this service,” he adds.

Care2talk.ca has since been implemented as a standard component of the Supportive and Palliative Care Program at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre. It was also nominated by the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre for both Quality and Innovation Awards from the Cancer Quality Council of Ontario.

Kandler and Sellick recently presented the care2talk.ca program and research at the World Congress of Psycho-Oncology in May 2010, and will be presenting at the upcoming American Psychosocial Oncology Society Annual Meeting in February 2010.

When asked why so many people are sitting up and taking notice, Kandler replies: “It is about reaching out to patients, for their benefit. Care2talk.ca is a practical example, even a glimpse of how we will connect with patients in the future.”

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