A new website has been created to support non-professional carers of terminally ill individuals. 

These carers, often family members, friends, or neighbours, play a critical role in offering physical, emotional, and practical care. 

Recognising their unique challenges, a Flinders University research team developed an online resource called CarerHelp.

“A significant portion of these carers can feel overwhelmed, isolated and experience psychological, along with financial, distress. Carers can have unmet information needs and these can change across the caring period, so they need easy access to support materials,” says Professor Jennifer Tieman, directors of Flinders University’s Research Centre in Palliative Care, Death and Dying (RePaDD).

The CarerHelp website emerged from a national collaboration involving St Vincent's Melbourne, University of Technology Sydney, and Carers Australia. 

This open-access resource, designed for carers and families supporting individuals with palliative care needs, gained significant traction during its test phase. 

From October 2019 to June 2020, it attracted 5,701 users, 25,214 webpage views, and 7,881 web sessions, demonstrating its value.

Identifying the need for practical and psychological support, improved education, and enhanced communication strategies, the researchers rigorously tested the CarerHelp website before its public release. 

They found that while information for carers is abundant online, it tends to be scattered, inadequately detailed, and disease-specific.

User testing and usability assessments led to improvements in the CarerHelp website. They also revealed a lack of awareness about existing resources, highlighting the importance of marketing and communication efforts to promote CarerHelp to a wider audience.