The role of the social worker in pediatric oncology

The social work in pediatric oncology is quite a young professional area which is not yet fully developed. The oncology patients are children who together with their parents arrive to the hospital for a long stay and need help to adapt to new life situation. Especially parents need help in the first days and get some time to accept the diagnosis of their child and find ways how to fight with it. The social workers in pediatric oncology can provide help in the hospital and outside the hospital. However, it is not clear what role the social worker should have while helping the patients and their families in pediatric oncology area. The aim of the research is to analize what role does the social work theory and the Lithuanian jurisdiction delegate and what are the needs of oncology patients and their parents. The research was conducted according to the scientific literature analysis and the methods of the grounded theory. The social work roles were analysed according to such social work theory perspectives: the humanism-existencialim, behaviorsim, radical-marxist and empowerment and advocacy. There were six respondeds that participated in the research. Five of those were children oncology staff and the sixth respondend was a patient‘s father. According to the research results the administrator‘s role of the social worker in children‘s oncology area does not comply with social work theory. Also, according to the Lithuanian jurisdiction it is too narrow and undeveloped. The needs of the patients and their parents show that the role of the social worker can be developed accordingly. It was defined that the roles of the social worker in children‘s onclogoy are consultant, teacher, mobiliser, mediator, advocacy role