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.