CASE STUDY: Family Member with Alzheimer’s Disease: Mark and Jacqueline
Mark and Jacqueline have been married for 30 years. They have grown children who live in another state. Jacqueline’s mother has moved in with the couple because she has Alzheimer’s disease. Jacqueline is an only child and always promised her mother that she would care for her in her old age. Her mother is unaware of her surroundings and often calls out for her daughter Jackie when Jacqueline is in the room. Jacqueline reassures her mother that she is there to help, but to no avail.
Jacqueline is unable to visit her children on holidays because she must attend to her mother’s daily needs. She is reluctant to visit friends or even go out to a movie because of her mother’s care needs or because she is too tired. Even though she has eliminated most leisure activities with Mark, Jacqueline goes to bed at night with many of her caregiving tasks unfinished. She tries to visit with her mother during the day, but her mother rejects any contact with her daughter. Planning for the upcoming holidays seems impossible to Mark, because of his wife’s inability to focus on anything except her mother’s care.

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Case Study: Family Member with Alzheimer’s disease: Mark and Jacqueline

Introduction

The case study entails a family that is living in a different state. The couples who are taken into consideration are Jacqueline and Mark who have been married for the past 30 years. The mother of Jacqueline has been living with the couple because she has Alzheimer’s disease. She has moved in with them because Jacqueline is an only child and always promised to take care of her mother. She is always calling on to her irrespective of the time. As a result of the commitment to provide care for her mother, Jacqueline has had challenges in visiting her children or friends. This has led Mark to have challenges in planning for a holiday since her mother as well does not approve of the need for the company of others. This paper helps in the assessment of the case study.

How do you think this situation reflects Jacqueline’s sense of role performance?

This situation reflects that Jacqueline is the main role performer in the family. The challenge is that the performance that she is carrying out may end up affecting her life and her health standards. She frequently seems to be stressed and working hard to ensure that she can help her mother. Irrespective of the commitment that she has had in the process of provision of a healthcare direction that is considered to be reliable and there are issues of conflict in the role that the family is playing….

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