Care Plus for Patients and Carers
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What is the difference between Care Plus and my usual cancer care?Care Plus offers an extra layer of support in addition to your usual care from your cancer care team. Care Plus focuses on supporting the person with cancer as well as their family and friends. Multidisciplinary teams work together to meet your physical, psychological, social, spiritual and cultural needs. It also provides advice, support and education to family and friends
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Can I bring my family member, friend or personal carer?Yes. You are welcome to bring your family, friends or personal carer(s) to your Care Plus appointments. There is support and information offered to them too.
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Where will Care Plus appointments take place?You can be seen by the Care Plus team in the hospital as an outpatient. People receiving care at the Royal Melbourne and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre see the Care Plus team based at the Parkville Integrated Supportive Care clinic. Telehealth is also available if that suits your circumstances, particularly if you live in rural or regional areas of Victoria.
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What is the cost involved with seeing the Care Plus team?All Care Plus appointments will be covered by Medicare. As needed, and in discussion with you, the Care Plus team may link you to services that you receive at home or outside of a hospital, which may cost money. Some examples of things that might cost extra are: hiring specialised equipment for use at home paying for medicines paying respite services that charge a fee paying the fee of a private health professional, such as a psychologist, that isn’t fully covered by Medicare paying for complementary therapies, such as massage therapy and acupuncture.
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How can I contact the Care Plus team?For all enquiries, please click on the relevant hospital email link below: St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre The Royal Melbourne Hospital
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Is my type of cancer eligible for Care Plus?Care Plus is offered at St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, The Royal Melbourne Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Each hospital provides this extra layer of care for different cancer types alongside usual treatments. Some cancer types include High Grade Glioma, Multiple Myeloma, Pancreatic, Oesophageal and Upper GI cancers, Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, Hepatocellular Carcinoma. You can discuss a referral with your cancer care team or by contacting the email addresses provided on the contact page.
Care Plus is a service that offers an extra layer of support for people with cancer.
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Care Plus is provided alongside your usual care from your clinical team and its focus is to help you live well, and make sure you and your family have the support you need.​
St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne
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41 Victoria Parade, Fitzroy VIC 3065 Australia
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Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre​
305 Grattan Street Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia
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The Royal Melbourne Hospital
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300 Grattan Street Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia
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Cancer Australia aims to enable people affected by cancer to access quality support and to better support each other.
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Cancer Australia - Living with cancer
This resource describes some of the challenges experienced by people affected by cancer.
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​Cancer Council provides patients, carers and families with a multitude of resources on types of cancer, treatments, side effects, support services and online resources, information about emotional and practical support, lists of podcasts and trusted resources. They have information about specific cancers, such as oesophageal, brain, myeloma, pancreatic, leukaemia, and liver cancer, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander support and multilingual resources.
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State Cancer Councils have additional and valuable resources, including specific information on the research and community activities in your state.
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Cancer Council NSW
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Resources in other languages​​​​
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NSW Government eviQ- Patient information sheets
eviQ provides a corresponding patient information sheet for every cancer treatment protocol available on the website.
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Read about different cancers and find links to relevant information and services.
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​Get access to the most up to date information on brain tumours, talk to other patients, carers or health professionals with similar experiences, and access other tools online to help with symptom management.
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A not-for-profit organisation that supports all patients with brain tumours. They provide peer support to patients, carers, families and friends.