Cancer work refers to work with cancer patients and their loved ones, cancer prevention, and cancer awareness raising. The Cancer Foundation has been collecting donations to support such cancer work since 2013. The member associations of the Cancer Society of Finland received funding ranging from €15 000 to €50 000, and totalling €575 000. Counselling and psychosocial support for cancer patients and their loved ones have been supported and expanded nationwide. Guidance on counselling has been standardised and material has been produced to support the work. All new material has also been produced in Swedish. With the support of the Cancer Foundation, peer support, volunteering, and training materials were standardised and further developed in 2018. Cancer work among other things supported regional advisory services, art therapy activities and patient guides. In addition, rehabilitation and family work activities were supported. With the assistance of the Cancer Foundation, the Cancer Society of Finland supports the national advice service of member associations, where health care professionals respond on cancer issues by phone, e-mail or in real-time in online discussion. Trained nurses provide information, support, and advice to patients, their loved ones and others who are concerned about cancer. Counsellors also provide advice on cancer and hereditary factors. The service is free. In 2018, the advice service received almost 6 100 contacts, most of them by phone and e-mail. In 2018, a second LiveChat was opened, which quadrupled the amount of online chat. The cancer pain hotline (Syöpäkipulinja) providing advice on the treatment of cancer pain was started in 2014 in collaboration with Helsinki University Central Hospital’s Outpatient Pain Clinic. The counselling service is intended for patients and their loved ones as well as for healthcare professionals. The cancer pain hotline is run by a nurse who specialises in pain management and, if necessary, consults a physician specialised in pain treatment. The reasons people had for calling the cancer pain hotline included: uncontrollable pain, inadequate pain medication, a problem with administering the pain medication, and ignorance of where to contact. A part of the nationwide counselling service is the benefits advice phone service, which is free of charge. This helps cancer patients on matters to do with income and benefits. The benefits advice phone service received 81 calls during the year. Patients in particular asked about sickness insurance and income matters. The Pirkanmaa Cancer Society runs the service. The purpose of the genetic counselling service at the Cancer Society of Finland is to help people who are worried about having a predisposition to hereditary cancer work out if there is a need for further investigation of their situation. Anyone who is worried that they, their spouse or their children have a potential predisposition to hereditary cancer can contact their local cancer association or the nationwide counselling service for advice on cancer and genetics. Nurses trained in hereditary cancer counselling handle the advice on hereditary cancer provided by the Cancer Society of Finland, and answer queries on hereditary cancer at a general level. A physician specialised in hereditary cancer in turn assesses the need for subsequent investigation. In 2018, 144 people contacted the service, and 63 were referred for further examination.
