Needs And Social Support Of Leukemia Patients And Their Family Analysis Study

Recently, in China, the incidence rate of leukemia is 40 thousand out of 100 thousand. And each year, there are more than 40 thousand people infected leukemia nationwide, of which half of these patients are children. Leukemia is a sort of serious illness which requires long-term treatment and large amount of expenditure. Therefore, for these children, apart from being plagued by leukemia which could result in decline in their body functions, it also could lead to psychological problems and exert negative impact on the development of their interpersonal skills, which act as one of the hardest setbacks in their life.In addition, welfare system for children has not been well established in our nation, mingling with ordinary social welfare system. For instance, current health care system for children is included in urban and rural residents’ health care system. However, this policy is in face of many thorny problems, such as low reimbursement rate, absence of certain medical expend in the whole health care system and complicated reimbursement procedure involving various regions.Therefore, the major problem that children with leukemia in our nation have to face is a problem of treatment as well as a social problem. And there are several relevant factors contributing to the appearance of this issue, like our current medical system for child’s serious illness relief, health care system and imperfect welfare system for children. In other words, it is not only family’s obligation to protect and pay close attention to children, but also social responsibility.This paper is to obtain comprehensive information over children’s current life, social support and their actual demand who is under leukemia by means of interviewing explicitly 24 guardians of these children, along with substantial theory in this field. And conditions of these children’s demand as well as their family’s has been deduced. Through intensively studying social support for these children in two aspects, that is different stages of their illness and various forms of social support, several conclusions would have been made, including lack of diverse social support, so-called “double weight and double overlook” phenomenon in social support, presence of different problems in the form of social support(nation, organizations, social network and family).By means of analyzing patient’s demands and current situation in social support, as well as deep study for conclusions, the author of this paper intends to discuss the possibility of constructing sound social support system for children with leukemia in four respects, embracing nation, institutions, social network and family. Meanwhile, some suggestions will be put forward from discrete aspects of society so as to provide relief for these children and their family. Moreover, other relevant propositions will be made for government in their process of policy making with regard to social welfare for children, social relief and social service, which could be conducive to realize social equality, preserve social stability and promote social development.