Caring for a person close to you is complex and challenging, especially when suffering from a terminal illness. As a caregiver, I have to give the best support professionally and as a person who could go through the same scenario. The family I am tasked with offering support to is Benson Gravel, who has a wife and three children. The children include a 19-year-old son, a fourteen-year-old daughter, and an infant of nine months. Before offering any support to the family, it is prudent to understand each family member’s type of loss. Children deal with grief differently from infants, which is different from how teenagers and adults deal with the same. In case the worst happens, understanding how each family member deals with grief would help them through the mourning process.
Infants do not grasp the concept that a person they are close to will soon leave them because they are suffering from a terminal illness. As long the parents are present and can interact, the attachment would be maintained, and it would be difficult for them to know the parents are sick. However, there is potential for grief for infants; when the parent dies, they will miss the presence and exhibit symptoms of withdrawal (Mason et al., 2020). Infants get attached to faces, and the absence of a familiar face will adversely affect them. They would be silent, unresponsive to people, and at times inconsolable. The potential for loss for the nine-year-old daughter would, however, be a different one.
The daughter is already aware of the environment and is directly impacted by the fact that their father is sick and dying. The affection she has for her father would get her distracted, stressed, and depressed. She will be thinking of why he, the father, because of the cognitive development that he is undergoing. The possibility of death might be viewed by them as a punishment, thus increasing the potential for complicated grief (Kessler, 2020). Therefore, the girl might start developing concerns about her health and if she might go through the same experience as her father. The grief is expected to be intense with unexpected reactions since they received a loss of security from the father.
The eldest son is a teenager going through the adolescent stage. He will perceive the possibility of death and sickness as a process that a person goes through rather than an event. The adolescent’s potential for complicated grief adapts to coping mechanisms because displaying an emotion would be perceived as weakness. On the other hand, the wife would be depressed because she is dealing with the loss of a husband who provided security and is the breadwinner. She has also lost a companion, an intimate partner, and a person she confided in (Perone et al., 2019). However, the family members have to be helped in dealing with their grief and losses and assisting them in taking care of their ailing father. The best way to deal with grief is to organize family therapy. Therapies would help them recount their losses while helping manage the suffering they have as a family.
References
Kessler, D. (2020). Finding meaning: The sixth stage of grief. Scribner.
Mason, T. M., Tofthagen, C. S., & Buck, H. G. (2020). Complicated grief: Risk factors, protective factors, and interventions. Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care, 16(2), 151-174.
Perone, A. K., Dunkle, R. E., Feld, S., Shen, H., Kim, M. H., & Pace, G. T. (2019). Depressive symptoms among former spousal caregivers: Comparing stressors, resources, and circumstances of caregiving cessation among older husbands and wives. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 62(6), 682-700.