Why It’s Important to Accept Help from Others
Learn what can happen when you harness the good will of the people around you and allow yourself to accept help from others.
Communities of faith, extended family and friends can be a great source of support for families facing a cancer diagnosis and treatment.
The people you choose to share your feelings with and how much you want to share is up to each family to decide. The information you want to share and the way you choose to share that information is also a family decision. It’s okay to keep certain information about your life private. You and your children are not obligated to share, comfort, or talk with others about your experience or feelings. Talk with your children about ways to say that they don’t feel like talking about something without hurting others.
Ways to Talk to Others About a Cancer Diagnosis
- Determine Your Sharing Preferences
Decide how much information you want to share and how often you want to share updates. - Effective Communication During a Crisis
You may want to start a phone tree, post updates online, or create an email group so that you can communicate with the people you trust quickly, rather than explaining multiple times.
Accepting Help
Your friends and family will want to help you, but they might not know what you need. It’s okay to be specific. As a matter of fact, you will likely have the most emotionally fulfilling conversations with those whom you communicate openly about your needs and emotions.
Suggestions for Ways Others Can Help
- Ask friends to provide a meal for your family on treatment days.
This will not only help reduce the burden of meal planning and cooking but also provide you with nutritious food which is crucial during treatment. A shared meal can bring a sense of normalcy and comfort in challenging times. - Ask friends and family to do pick-ups and drop-offs for your children.
Childcare can become challenging during treatment sessions. By having a trusted individual help with transporting your kids to school or extracurricular activities, you ensure their routines stay as uninterrupted as possible, providing them a sense of security. - Ask a friend or family member to be a contact for sharing information or organizing help and support.
Designating a person for this role can help centralize communication, reducing the effort and emotional strain of having to update multiple people individually. This person can also coordinate assistance from different people, ensuring that help is available when it’s most needed.
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