As a consequence of the Covid-19 epidemic, Hasanuddin University students who are part of the Student Creativity Program Team for Community Service (PKM-PM) identify alterations in the behavior patterns of children with cancer at the Indonesian Cancer Children Care Foundation (YKAKI) Makassar. They prepare for this by providing “Well-Being Therapy in Achieving Mental Health and Psychosocial Support for Children with Cancer at YKAKI Makassar.”
The team of Putri Rofifah Nabila Muchsin, Fara Buja Khofifah, Irawan Purnomo Aji, Sarpy Saputra, and Rafly Ramadhan Saputra presented solutions to the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support problems faced by parents and children with cancer at YKAKI Makassar as a result of changes in the pattern of people’s lives during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The team leader, Putri Rofifah NM, said that this initiative is a contribution to achieving the third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), which is to guarantee and promote the health and prosperity of all people. Consideration of mental health and psychosocial aspects are the primary supportive elements that will aid in the healing process of cancer in children.
Well-Being Therapy focuses on the individual’s feeling of self-acceptance, personal development, life purpose, environmental mastery, and healthy interpersonal interactions. Two techniques are used in Well-Being Therapy. The first is eudomanic, which focuses on the purpose of life and self-realization. The second hedonic that emphasizes an individual’s happiness. “While some earlier programs used just one method, we attempted to implement both by modifying the children’s living environment,” he stated.
This 2018 Law student said that the implementation phases started with an introduction, play and therapy, discussion with us, education, and art shows, which were carried out using two ways and 11 meetings. The technique of application is offered in the form of education, games, and art to teach the motor skills of team mates.
In its application, Mental Health is accomplished via play techniques, counseling, and art exhibits that are used with a hedonistic perspective by inducing joy in children through traditional games that will channel their emotions. Psychosocial Support is attained via the Talk with Us technique using a hedonistic approach by fostering a feeling of self-acceptance and constructing psychosocial support with the community and family through live Instagram interactions. The psychological effect of parents and children with cancer may be impacted by the high expense of treatment and the relatively high death rate of cancer. Rofifah said that worry and pessimism might impair the effectiveness of therapy.
This work is welcomed and valued by YKAKI in order to ensure that all procedures function efficiently. Children with cancer become involved in activities and socialize as a result of this activity’s positive outcomes. In the process of treating childhood cancer, parents of children with cancer are educated on the significance of mental health and establishing a support system.
The challenge was coordinating the time of team members with the chemotherapy schedule of YKAKI cancer patients’ children. Rofifah stated, “We hope this initiative will continue to operate, be expanded, and be embraced by organizations and communities with similar goals.”
Original Writer: Nuralya Azzahra
Translated by: Corvi Dipda S.
