English abstract
The study aims to identify the social problems, facing the families of
children with cancer, by identifying the most important social problems
(family problems, psychological, societal and economical), and trying to
reveal the most important mechanisms used to reduce the severity of social
problems, and to develop proposals to reduce its exacerbation. The study
relied on the descriptive analytical approach ,where two tools were used to
collect data: the in-depth interview of (n=43) attendant either mother or
father of sick children , and the other tool is the open interview with the
(n=2) social workers at the National Center for Oncology at the Royal
Hospital.
The data was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively, the results
represented the following: The families of children with cancer suffer from
several family problems, most notably (disturbance in roles, disturbance in
family relationships, disturbance in the family situation that resulted in
problems related to the study of children and problems related to the
behavior of children and problems related to family dispersion), as for
psychological problems signified in (problems related to fear, anxiety,
depression, and social isolation), and societal problems represented in (the
presence of a problem of communication between the family and the
treating team, the problem of the family breadwinner with the employer)
And finally, the economic problems represented in (the impact of the
economical level of the family, the effect of the level of family income, and
the presence of costs related to travel and treatment).
The study sheds light on the most important mechanisms used by
social worker to reduce the severity of social problems facing families of
children with cancer, including: providing counseling therapy sessions for
the family, studying the family's social status, communicating with the
employer of the breadwinner of family, communicating with Ministry of
Social Affairs and charities in providing financial support for families.
