FAMILY MOBILIZATION - WORK WITH ANGRY ELDERLY COUPLES IN DECLINING HEALTH

When elderly angry couples face difficulties in caring for each other, the ability to monitor each other's health problems is reduced, promp ting the mobilization of the family. This article presents three sets of questions that examine for patterns of family mobilization: positiv e wedging, disentanglement failure, positive in-and-out participation, and defensive paralleling. In our clinical impression, these patterns often accompany the health monitoring problems of angry elderly coupl es. Brief case studies are used to describe approaches for assisting t hese couples in terms of both health monitoring and marital interactio ns involving anger during health decline. A procedure of deliberate pa ralleling for working with couples who display an especially inflexibl e interpersonal arrangement is outlined. Implications are drawn for th erapists' education.