FERNANDES, L. M. de S. Desenhos Estórias de crianças com câncer acolhidas na Casa Hospedaria: desvelando seus significados [Drawing-And- Story Procedure with kids with cancer fostered at Casa Hospedaria: revealing their meanings]. Master’s Dissertation – Universidade Federal do Pará. Belém (PA), 2017.
Available on: http://ppgp.propesp.ufpa.br/ARQUIVOS/dissertacoes/Turma%202015/Disserta%C3%A7%C3%A3o%20Luana%20Fernandes.pdf>
This study aims to reveal if the subject of death of herself or other children with cancer are approached through the drawings stories produced by them and understand what it means to be on the cancer treatment and to live in the hostel house. The association between cancer and death becomes known to children; somehow, from the moment of diagnosis, this encounter is constant. When they try to talk about death with adults, they usually find it difficult to talk, arguing that they know nothing about it or cannot understand it. The methodological strategy was based on the qualitative approach based on phenomenology, aiming to access the meaning and intentionality of human phenomena, considering the meanings attributed by the individuals. The research was developed at the Association Colouring Life – Ronald Belem house which provides psychosocial care, lodging, food and transportation to children and companions during cancer treatment. Six children who were on cancer treatment and housed in the house, four females and two males, collaborated with the research. As a data collection instrument, a semi-structured interview was used with those responsible, aiming to identify general information about the child. Later, with the children, the procedure of story design was carried out, through drawings and verbal associations, introduced by Walter Trinca, in 1972. For the analysis and understanding of the data collected, the Amedeo Giorgi model was used. Subsequently, the thematic axes were constructed: the various losses in the sick; the death of himself and other infirmary children; living in a home away from home. All children highlighted, at some point in the construction of the drawing or in the elaboration of their stories, the losses and limitations they experience or perceived during cancer treatment. These were related to various aspects of their lives, such as: daily activities, leisure, change of habit and social isolation. The losses are experienced in a singular and subject way; they are related to the ways in which the children deal with other losses in the course of the years and stage of the psychic development in which they are found. These experiences make it possible to face the suffering and frustration caused by the loss. The child seeks understanding of what happens to him and his surroundings, deals with uncertainty about the future, being able to feel the proximity of death and express his feelings and emotions. It was observed that most of the collaborators chose the drawing to talk about death and dying, not being receptive to constructing their stories, which makes me think that stories have a beginning and an end, but some of these children still await the end of the story treatment to know if the cancer will win or if its outcomes will be life or death.