As a social worker, there are few things that are more traumatic than taking care of and seeing the suffering of a child with a terminal illness. It is even more painful when that disease is cancer, and the young child has to go through the ravages of the illness and treatment. Cancer treatment at this point in the world’s medical evolution is sometimes as brutal on the body as the disease itself. For a child, it hurts and disrupts his or her life. The child will have no space or energy to be a child and enjoy his or her life. It makes for a sad existence. It is in these instances when that young boy or girl needs a complete support system. He or she needs family, friends, teachers and health care personnel to help him or her through it. Recovery becomes doubly difficult when any of these people fails in their roles.
The case study
Emily is a young girl who has just been diagnosed with leukemia. She is the daughter of Teresa. Teresa has been through a tumultuous life and is at present a single mother. She has two other children. At present, she has a man with whom she lives but he has been reluctant to co-parent with her. She has survived on welfare and other social assistance from the authorities. She depends on Medicaid for her medical needs, and so does her children. Teresa has also …show more content…
Teresa’s extended family is also said to support. However, if the support were significant enough, she would not have to feed her family using food stamps. It is a dire situation for any child leave alone a sick child. Financial issues are important because they determine a child’s environment and diet (Chow et al., 2010). Those two aspects are very significant for a child who is sick. When one is stable financially, he or she can get the best care and medicine and provide surroundings in which the child can thrive. Teresa’s poverty is most definitely a problem in this