Helping others make the most of life

Intangible support

A medical social worker with the Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Zhang Linghui and her colleagues make regular visits to the wards to comfort children and their family. An important part of their job is to provide emotion support to families where a child's demise is imminent or has occurred.

"Doctors and nurses take responsibility for the medical side of matters. We, on the other hand, offer psychosocial support," said Zhang.

"When a child died during the preparation for a marrow transplant, we had to help the parents face the reality and make arrangements so that the mother could hold her child one last time before making decisions regarding the funeral."

Zhang and her colleagues always attempt to help sick children build up hope and courage, as well as educate them about life and death. They do so by getting the kids to capture what they feel are the good things in life using cameras or by drawing with pencils. Zhang also recalled how an eight-year-old boy once approached her with the passionate declaration, "I am not afraid (of death). I will turn into an angel."

A few years ago, the team successfully helped a child with leukemia fulfill his wish of going to the Disney Park in Hong Kong.

"Though the child died, the family nonetheless could find solace in that he had fulfilled his last wish and left peacefully," said Professor Ji Qingying, vice president of Shanghai Children's Medical Center.

The social workers department in the Children's Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai was established in 1998. Today, the department has 39 groups of volunteers and many of them do more than just provide emotional care to families. For instance, the social workers have to at times act as the communication bridge between doctors and families when treatments don't produce the desired results.

"Parents are often frustrated and blame the doctors when the treatments don't yield the expected outcomes. This is when we step in to calm these parents down and help them understand that the doctors want nothing but the best for their patients," explained Zhang.

In cases where a child's medical insurance is insufficient, social workers often help poverty-stricken families to source for financial assistance and they do so by contacting a host of charities and foundation on behalf of the parents.