Intervenções psicossociais em oncologia: Investigação de práticas do psicólogo junto a crianças com câncer

Abstract

Cancer is the second leading cause of death among children and adolescents in Brazil. Although chances of remission of the disease have increased in recent decades, becoming ill with cancer requires long, invasive treatments with side effects, which may lead to social-emotional compromises for people who experience this diagnosis, with a reduction in their quality of life levels. In order to offer emotional support to children and their families, and prevent or mitigate these adverse effects, psychologists who work in pediatric oncology make use of psychosocial interventions. The present research investigated, in a quantitative and qualitative method, the psychosocial strategies used by psychologists in who work in direct assistance with children and adolescents with cancer, aiming to understand how the intervention processes were carried out by such professionals in the care of these patients in a hospital context in terms of their objectives, modalities, resources and results. 30 psychologists (90% female) who worked in the pediatric oncology field for at least one year participated in this study, 13 of them were residents in Brazil while 17 were from abroad. An electronic questionnaire composed of closed questions was applied online. In a complementary matter, individual semi-structured interviews were carried out with five Brazilian psychologists who answered the questionnaire. The data from the questionnaire were subjected to a descriptive statistical analysis, while the reports obtained from the interviews were analyzed and categorized according to Bardin's Content Analysis. As a result, it was observed that half of the participants had a specialization in psycho-oncology and adopted the cognitive-behavioral model as a theoretical framework. In regards to the interventions, the most common objective was to validate the feelings and thoughts of the child/adolescent, in addition to helping them understand their illness and treatment and reducing the symptoms of anxiety and depression. Among the strategies most used by them, psychoeducation stood out, followed by psychological support and user Embracement. This study made it possible to raise the outline of types of work in pediatric psycho-oncology, by carrying out a systematization of the psychosocial interventions used in this field, which collaborated to the expansion of knowledge about the psychologist's work in a context of suffering and vulnerabilities. Studies of this nature can offer subsidies for planning and the development of actions with the potential to reduce damage to the development of children/adolescents who face different types of neoplasms.