Abstract

SOLARTE-CARDOZO, María Alejandra; SANCHEZ-VALENCIA, Linda Marcela  and  MORENO-CAMACHO, Manuel Alejandro. Meanings about Death Constructed by Children with the Oncological Diagnosis. Reflections for Social Workers in Palliative Care Teams. Prospectiva [online]. 2023, n.35, e21512220.  Epub Mar 15, 2023. ISSN 0122-1213.  https://doi.org/10.25100/prts.v0i35.12220.

The objective was to understand the meanings that children from 8 to 12 years old with a cancer diagnosis construct about death and the influence of these meanings in anticipatory grief in palliative care. The study was guided by four conceptual topics: 1. the construction of meanings, 2. thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, 3. the representation of death, and 4. death and children. It was a descriptive and interpretive research with a qualitative design through interactive techniques and reflective workshops. Among the results, it is highlighted that death is an unknown experience of difficult representation and a taboo in Western societies. A tendency to minimize the real and definitive of death is highlighted through beliefs that appeal to the continuity of self through a spiritual or symbolic identity, and a significant incidence of thinking and feeling of the adult in the configuration of the internal world of the adult. Death in childhood is a deeply painful and unexpected issue that demands a complex approach from families, health teams, and society. The psychosocial intervention in pediatric palliative care invites Social Work to provide resources to contribute to the quality of life through a professional practice based theoretically-methodologically and continuously thought.

Keywords : Death; Pediatric Palliative Care; Anticipatory Grief; Psychosocial Intervention; Social Work.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )