Social work with arts: A professional practice for developing social emotional learning skills of children with leukemia

The purpose of this study is to reveal the disease-related experiences, feelings, and thoughts of children, whose treatment for leukemia have been completed and who have returned home, using the therapeutic elements of social work intervention with art and to improve their social and emotional learning skills. The study was carried out between January 2017 and January 2021 in Ankara. It adopted the mixed method. First, an observation was carried out in a state hospital for three months to obtain information about leukemia. Then, semi-structured in-depth interviews were held with 7 children (3 girls and 4 boys), who were accessed using the snowball method. Following the interviews, the social work intervention and training program with art was carried out with each child for 8 weeks. This program integrates the principles and methods of art therapy with the intervention techniques of the discipline of social work. The Social-Emotional Learning Skills Scale was used to perform the pretest and posttest evaluations of the program. The analysis of the semi-structured interviews revealed the challenges faced by the subjects during the leukemia diagnosis, the impact of treatment on the subjects, their coping skills, and experiences after the treatment. Significant progress was made in the social-emotional learning skills of all children as a result of the social work intervention and training program with art. In this context, there is an important relationship between the healing and empowering functions of art and social work interventions. It is known that social work interventions with art are not used enough in clinical practice. From the perspective of the Turkish healthcare system, it is of vital importance to adopt a child-friendly hospital approach. Along with medical intervention, children should also be provided psychosocial support services supported by art. It is also recommended to conduct adaptation programs and monitoring that make use of art for children who have completed their treatment. In the context of the relationship between social work and art, the use of art in training, research, and practice should be encouraged and social work with art practices should be learned and used by more social workers. Keywords: Leukemia, Social Work with Children, Art and Creativity, Social Work with Art, Social-Emotional Learning Skills.