Effectiveness of Social Work Intervention on the Caretakers of Cancer Patients A Social Work Study

Diagnosis of cancer revealed to the patient and family members causes emotional trauma. Medical advancements have resulted in treating cancer for either cure or control. This has increased the responsibilities of family caretakers for comprehensive care of the patient. Literature has provided abundant evidence for the impact of caretaking on psychological condition of the caretakers. When family caretakers are unprepared or lack support they will fail to maintain their physical and emotional health. In this context, current study is conducted with the specific aims of a) To develop a Social Work intervention module to deal with quality of life issues of caretakers of persons living with cancer, reduce their depressive symptoms and facilitate healthy coping strategies, and b) To test its effectiveness empirically. Hence the objectives of the study are 1) To study socio demographic features of caretakers of persons with cancer and persons living with cancer. 2) To find out the impact of cancer on the economic conditions of the family. 3) To assess the extent of depression on caretakers of persons with cancer. 4) To study the quality of life of caretakers of persons with cancer. 5) To find out the coping strategies used by the caretakers of persons with cancer. 6) To measure the effectiveness of Social Work intervention on depression, quality of life and coping strategies of caretakers of persons with cancer. Study is conducted in a clinical setting following the Randomized Control Trial design, wherein a total of 120 caretakers were taken and were equally divided as cases and controls having 60 each in both the groups. These caretakers were recruited only if they fulfilled the inclusion criteria of being above the age of 18 years, newly diagnosed cases, comprehending the languages of Kannada/English/Konkani/Tulu/Hindi and residing in Mangalore Taluq /DK even temporarily for the purpose of treatment. After the baseline assessment on level of depression, quality of life and coping mechanisms, cases received the comprehensive Social Work intervention for four months and controls received educational intervention only. Assessment of both the groups on level of depression, quality of life and coping mechanisms was done after one month of intervention.