CanTeen branch in ‘dire’ situation and facing closure

Taranaki’s CanTeen branch may face closure after the recent announcement of a proposed restructure.

CanTeen, a charitable organisation that provides support for young people impacted by cancer, is in a ‘‘dire financial situation,’’ board chairperson Carol Scholes said. She said redundancies were certain ahead of the restructure and some smaller offices may be closed. She was unable to say where jobs will be lost or how many. ‘‘Unless we do something very dramatic, very quickly, we’re pretty much in the position where CanTeen will close down by the next year or earlier.’’

On November 30 CanTeen released a statement saying after 30 years it was unable to remain financially viable and was working on a proposed new structure. ‘‘CanTeen is facing the toughest period in its history head on,’’ the statement said. ‘‘The board has worked hard to determine a proposed new structure that will ensure CanTeen continues to support the young people in New Zealand that need it most.’’

‘‘The proposed structure will include a combination of face-toface and online support services.’’

Scholes said they would be working with CanTeen Australia to build an online portal and counselling service as face-to-face was expensive and reached fewer people. With the online change CanTeen would be able to support more people than they could with the model they’re operating with now, she said.

‘‘We’ve got people all over Taranaki that we can’t do face-toface with because there’s no way we could pay enough staff to go do all those face-to-face. We’ll actually end up increasing the support that we can give to people in remoter locations. But we’re also going to supplement that with face-to-face for people who want that."