Introduction to the Family
This paper presents a family which lives in Alta, Salt Lake County in Utah State, US. The family is comprised of a couple with four children making it a neutral family composed of six individuals. The cultural context for the family is highly influenced by religious affiliation as the family believes in Christianity. In the inner arrangement, the wife is supposed to be taking care of the home affairs such as preparing a meal for the members while the husband works to avail resources. Most important, the family is influenced by the Mormons, referred as Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints. Thus, they believe strongly on ideologies that control human morality and rebuking evil occurrences.
Family Life Crisis
In the family, the challenges that has led to crisis is due to the father, who is suffering from lung cancer. The condition started two years ago and he has been receiving all possible treatments through intensive therapies and psychological guidance. The family is in crisis since the head of the family, is the bread winner who works as a post man at a local postal organization. The crisis has escalated further since the diagnosis with cancer, where he has not been able to work in the corporation leading to his dismissal. The wife, a housewife is not able to provide for the family and the two elder children are at the Utah State University. Most important issue to note is the psychological distress the family is undergoing to cost of life.
Communication Styles
The communication style for the family is consensual as the members are able to open communicate their thought. However, they respect the value of conformity where the parents are the key decision makers. For instance, the children have sought to have ways in which their father can be assisted to end the undergoing tribulations due to the illness he is having. Most of the time, their mother informs them that they should pray and therefore, putting God before all the aspects has been key towards healing of their father. The father still determines the course of action by recommending that the children be offered psychological mentorship together with him to avoid more stress.
Whenever the family wants to air a critical issue to everyone, the father calls for a meeting and informs them of an agenda he has concerning the state of affairs in the family. He informs his wife to call a psychiatrist who can be coming over in their house to offer behavioral advice concerning the matter. The communication is key in that family since it can prevent questions about any prevailing issue. For instance, the two young children who may not understand the condition of there father may be wondering in case of any scarcity in the provision. Thus, letting them know about the consequences assists to make matters clear.
Family Cohesion and Flexibility
The family is strongly bonded as all members have love for each other without conditions. The father has been a key role example to his children as he ahs not been involved in fight with his wife. Therefore, the spouse loves him notably making his children to have the same affection to him. The bond has led to the family to having common agendas every time but with go ahead from the head of the family, the father for that case. (Koutra et al., 2016). Due to the condition of the father, all the members have been affected as they fear uncertainties such as death occurring to their father. The university students are independent since they can hustle while studying, but still have the connection to their father and willing to have him treated by all means.
The children together with their mother have formed a collaboration to seek how the father can be treated effectively. The elder siblings have suggested to present the issue to the university administration so that any sponsorship would be given to the father for his medical costs. The mother agrees and tells the young children not to worry but hope that almighty God shall solve the issue (Koutra et al., 2016). When the family recollects on how God has been faithful to them, they are optimistic that their father can heal by prayer. In that way, the family in united in prayers and are having faith concerning the condition of their father.
Life Cycle Stage
The current life cycle stages for the family are parenting and launching adults. First, as the introduction has depicted, the family has two students at Utah State University meaning that they are transitioning to adulthood responsibilities (Backer & Lynch, 2016). Similarly, the family has two other children who are in primary school thus, they are in need of parental love as they reach teenage stage. The current stage means the couple has to multitask between parenting and releasing the older children for independence. They are still struggling with the cancer issue and the family must be critical of undertaking all the required duties.
The two students at the higher learning level are somehow independent since they can acquire money through work study programme in their institution. Similarly, they can interact with other people which makes a point of coupling in coming years as one way to marry. For the younger siblings, they must be well checked so that adolescence will not hit them adversely by making decisions that may affect the current lifestyle (Backer & Lynch, 2016). If they give their parents hard time, the psychological distress may deteriorate with time. Therefore, the family life cycle is at the parenting and child launching simultaneously.
Areas of Concern in the Future
If the family seeks psychotherapy, there is a possibility that the mental torture they are undergoing shall be reduced. Similarly, if they keep their faith in religion, God will make them free from the evil of illness. They might get a long-term solution for the chronic illness such as getting a firm that shall cover for their medical expenses. The children have a role to play towards healing of their father. First, they can pray, work to get money, influence well wishers to assist in paying some school bill as that may relieve some burden for the parents as far as school is concerned. Thus, in future, the family might be stress-free depending on what they do currently concerning the crisis they are facing.
Conclusion
The paper has presented a family of six with a sick father. The members of the family are having hard times to contemplate on life issues due to the burden of illness that comes when the father is sick. The head of the family is respected despite having been dismissed from place of work due to inability to attend to work. He is suffering from cancer of lungs and mostly, he becomes unstable in many events. The family believes in Christianity and they are hopeful that the father shall get well soon through the work of God. The family is at the stage of parenting and launching adults. In the future, the family may be relieved from the crisis a remedy for the ailing father gotten.
References
Backer, E., & Lynch, D. (2016). Understanding the proclivity of visiting friends and relatives (VFR) travel across family life cycle stages in Australia. International Journal Of Tourism Research, 19(4), 447-454.
Koutra, K., Simos, P., Triliva, S., Lionis, C., & Vgontzas, A. (2016). Linking family cohesion and flexibility with expressed emotion, family burden and psychological distress in caregivers of patients with psychosis: A path analytic model. Psychiatry Research, 240(52), 66-75.