Presenting Complaint
The Jarretts are a family of three; however, they used to be a family of four until their son’s accidental death. The surviving son feels guilt and permanent anxiety about not being able to replace his dead parents’ child. However, he has to suppress his emotions because his mother pays him little attention, and his father cannot restore the relationship with either of them.
Family Assessment
Structure
The Jarrett family has rather strict boundaries because family members are not used to expressing feelings and emotions. The family has three subsystems: the marital subsystem between Beth and Calvin, the parental subsystem, and the sibling subsystem. Conrad has a parental relationship with his therapist and seeks interaction with girl peers (Grove et al., 2020).
According to the Calgary model, Conrad’s experience contributes to anxiety because he is the youngest son and receives less attention (Baniaghil et al., 2022). So, his suicide attempt is not surprising because his only source of social support was Dr. Berger. Conrad’s parents have no such sources, and they cannot find common ground with each other.
Developmental Tasks
The family’s primary developmental challenge was adjusting to a new life following Buck’s loss. Based on the Calgary model goals, it can be established that the parents’ task was to create comfort for Conrad and facilitate his integration into the community (Baniaghil et al., 2022). Based on nonverbal communication, it can be concluded that Conrad’s family is not fulfilling its goal of alleviating their child’s emotional discomfort. The family did not perform this task before Buck’s death because Conrad did not feel loved.
Function
Triangulation occurs when Conrad tries to commit suicide to get the attention of his parents, suffering the loss of Buck. Calvin feels a sense of pseudo-hostility toward Beth because she is not very involved in their relationship. The family avoids communication because their way of coping is to run away from any problems and obstacles. The burden after the death of a family member weighs heavily on them, and they cannot go on living peacefully.
Clinical Conclusions
The family needs to start working on developing the emotional side. In addition, they need to continue to work with a therapist to cope with PTSD. All family members need to attend family therapy to begin rebuilding relationships. Specifically, the topic of Buck’s death and Conrad’s suicide attempt should be legalized so that each family member can explain their feelings and emotions about these events.
Reference
Baniaghil, A. S., Ghasemi, S., Rezaei-Aval, M., & Behnampour, N. (2022). Effect of communication skills training using the Calgary-Cambridge model on Interviewing skills among midwifery students: A randomized controlled trial. Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research, 27(1), 24–29.
Grove, D. R., Lee, M. Y., & Greene, G. J. (2020). Family therapy for treating trauma: An integrative family and systems treatment (I-FAST) approach. Oxford University Press.