Presently there are over twenty-eight million persons in the United States over the age of 65 (Walsh, 1989). Historically the older life cycle stages and the problem associated with them have been dismissed, discounted, or denied. In so doing, the therapies which would address these individual and family problems have not been developed. The present paper attempts to rectify these issues by exploring the typical problems associated with the family with an elderly person against a life cycle framework (McGoldrick & Gerson, 1989). In addition, it proposes a six stage therapeutic model based on Social Constructionist Theory (Gergen & Gergen, 1983). The six stages of therapy with an elderly family are: (1) Joining the Family Meaning System, (2) Proposing The Notion Of A Socially Constructed Family Meaning System, (3) Learning The Family's Meaning System, (4) Challenging The Family's Meaning System, (5) Amplifying The New Meaning System, and (6) Stabilizing the New Meaning System.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Atwood et al. (1993) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 3 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: