Böcker av Shwetha Joyce Rasquinha

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 hasincreased the responsibilities of family caretakers for comprehensive care of the patient.Literature has provided abundant evidence for the impact of caretaking on psychologicalcondition of the caretakers. When family caretakers are unprepared or lack support they will failto maintain their physical and emotional health. In this context, current study is conducted withthe specific aims of a) To develop a Social Work intervention module to deal with quality of lifeissues of caretakers of persons living with cancer, reduce their depressive symptoms andfacilitate healthy coping strategies, and b) To test its effectiveness empirically. Hence theobjectives of the study are 1) To study socio demographic features of caretakers of persons withcancer and persons living with cancer. 2) To find out the impact of cancer on the economicconditions of the family. 3) To assess the extent of depression on caretakers of persons withcancer. 4) To study the quality of life of caretakers of persons with cancer. 5) To find out thecoping strategies used by the caretakers of persons with cancer. 6) To measure the effectivenessof Social Work intervention on depression, quality of life and coping strategies of caretakers ofpersons with cancer.Study is conducted in a clinical setting following the Randomized Control Trial design, whereina total of 120 caretakers were taken and were equally divided as cases and controls having 60each in both the groups. These caretakers were recruited only if they fulfilled the inclusioncriteria of being above the age of 18 years, newly diagnosed cases, comprehending the languagesof Kannada/English/Konkani/Tulu/Hindi and residing in Mangalore Taluq /DK even temporarilyfor the purpose of treatment. After the baseline assessment on level of depression, quality of lifeand coping mechanisms, cases received the comprehensive Social Work intervention for fourmonths and controls received educational intervention only. Assessment of both the groups onlevel of depression, quality of life and coping mechanisms was done after one month ofintervention.