Re-activating life skills in cancer patients through expressive-creative workshops: A qualitative exploratory study

ABSTRACT

Background

Cancer strongly impacts on patients’ lives, undermining their life skills. This research aimed to explore the perception of efficacy of participants in a series of expressive-creative workshops (ArtLab) designed to reactivate life skills in cancer patients.

Methods

Quotations of two semi-structured focus groups with ten participants in ArtLab (Mean Age = 59; SD = 11.19) enrolled at [Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori] have been analyzed through a priori (top-down) thematic analysis which allowed us to identify life skills provided by WHO 1948: Emotional, Relational and Cognitive.

Results

Thematic analysis showed ArtLab program’s effectiveness, especially regarding Emotional and Relational life skills. Cognitive skills, instead, seemed to be only partially expressed. Sub-themes articulation for each life skill has been discussed.

Conclusion

This study provides encouraging results with respect to the effectiveness of expressive-creative group workshops among cancer patients.

KEYWORDS:

• Group
• workshops
• life skills
• oncology
• post-traumatic growth
• rehabilitation

Acknowledgments

We are indebted to all the patients who participated in the study. We sincerely thank all the instructors of Artlab. We thank Michela Eigenmann ‎for the English revision‎.

Animal studies

No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.

Author contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. [Laura Gangeri], [Simonetta Sborea] and [Claudia Borreani] designed the study and critically revised the paper. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [Sara Alfieri], [Laura Gangeri], [Nadia Fontana] and [Davide Ferraris]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [Sara Alfieri] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Human studies and informed consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study. Protection of the patients’ identity was guaranteed by assigning study-specific, unique patient numbers.

Notes

1. Cancer patients and family members from all over Italy can participate to ArtLab, at a very affordable annual fee. The initiative is advertised through billboards located in hospitals and through numerous social media. Yearly workshops are carried out from September to June on a weekly basis.