The Diverse Dynamics Of Family

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Demented people experience a progressive loss of brain function because of the physical changes that occur in the brain structure which affect the individual’s memory, language, thinking, behavior, relationship and judgment.

Consequences of Dementia:

Individual- The person who experiences dementia is deeply affected in a way that the normal life that he had is suddenly gone. The person, who used to be independent, now becomes dependent with the people surrounding him. It felt like he loses the life he used to have because dementia causes the person to forget everything. Because of dementia, he is unable to do the tasks of his own, his thinking ability slowly disappeared, communication changes, and his behavior changes which is why it is so hard for that person with dementia to meet his needs without the aid of other people.

Family/Whanau- The family/whanau of the person with dementia are the ones who suffer the most because they felt that the person they know has changed. Not only that their family member with dementia is affected but it also changes the family’s daily living. They face a great responsibility with their family member having dementia because they need to support them. The family is the first who would deal with them before healthcare facilities take over. Having a family member with dementia, would be very difficult for the family/whanau especially if they do not have any knowledge or skills with providing care for demented residents. The family/whanau is the one who are affected the most because supporting them leads into stress, burn-out, personal loss, abuse, and role-change.

Carers- Caring for someone with dementia can be very difficult and exhausting. The carers who provide support to the demented people sometimes experiences stress, loss, grief, guilt, frustration, anger, and exhaustion resulting to inability to render appropriate care to the demented residents. Due to the gradual changes in the person’s abilities and personality that dementia causes, the carers are having difficulty dealing with. The care assistants may have to deal with the variety of feelings they experience to be able to comply with the ever changing needs of the affected individual.

Signs and Symptoms

People with dementia vary in the patterns that they have as well as the speed with which their abilities decline. The abilities of demented people might alter from day-to-day, or worse, within the same day. But, what is definite is that the abilities of the person will deteriorate, sometimes quickly over a few months, in other cases more gradually over a number of years. Some of the signs and symptoms of dementia are classified into three stages namely early, moderate, and advanced, but not of all the features will also be experienced by the demented person nor will go through every stage. In early stage, this is often noticeable in observation. It is usually very slowly and is often not possible to recognize the exact time it began. At the stage of moderate dementia, more apparent and disabling problems are present. And, in the final stage, the individual is severely disabled and total care for them is needed. Although many abilities are lost throughout the progression of the disease, there are still some that remains. The demented person still maintains their sense of touch, still capable of hearing, and responding to emotion is still being kept. The common signs and symptoms that people with dementia might experience are loss of memory, difficulty communicating, inability to learn and remember new information, difficulty with planning and organizing as well as with coordination and motor functions, changes in personality, inability to make reasons, behavioral changes, paranoia, hallucinations and agitation.

Impacts on the Diverse Dynamics of Family/Whanau

The family/whanau that has a family member with dementia would mainly focus on providing care with the demented family member from which other members of the family are being left behind. Since there is a need of supporting the affected of family member, the attention, most of the times, is undivided towards keeping an eye to that demented member of the family. For instance, the type of family is extended or blended which means the grandparents are living with them, and for example, the grandmother is demented, the parents, usually the mother is obliged to look after the demented grandmother from which taking good care of other responsibilities, like looking out of the children, are being neglected. And, due to the stress that the mother is experiencing, she could not be able to attend to the other needs of their household such as doing the household chores. On the other hand, the father needs to work hard to support the basic needs of the family, as such incident happens, no one is left to keep an eye with the children.

Interaction and Response of Individual, Family/Whanau, Carers to Stressors

First, the individual’s response to the evolving stressors is that they become easily agitated and unsettled. One can notice that people with dementia is stressed with their sudden change of behaviors. They react to stress by demonstrating aggressive behavior, wandering, or worse, displaying catastrophic reactions. For the affected individual to cope up with the stressors, he must be separated from the environment that triggers the stress. His interest must be supported and he must be encouraged to participate with the activities. Also, checking the support plan would be very effective to meet the needs and provide appropriate care for him.

Second, the family/whanau respond to the stressors brought about by having a family member with dementia is that they tend to change roles. For instance, the wife who was not used to cooking and dealing with the finances because her husband usually did it is now taking the role after her husband was diagnosed with dementia. Most of the time, due to the family being fully responsible to the family member with dementia, the former become irritated and usually they forget to pamper themselves. There are also instances that they are not providing enough care to the family member. For them to cope up with these stressors, they should have a time out and take a rest; they could also attend trainings which will aid them to enhance their knowledge, awareness and skills in order to understand more about dementia and that they would be able to provide sufficient care to them.

Lastly, caring for people with dementia can be really challenging. Frustration is usually the response of a carer in dealing with a demented people. Stress comes along the way particularly when there is a sudden change of behavior among demented people like aggression. Care assistants feel that it is too much for them and that it is too exhausting which results into insufficient care provision and sometimes improper way of treatment towards the residents. The carer should respond to stressors by having a time out or taking a break, learning to identify the frustration’s warning signs, calm down, modifying the thoughts to reduce the stress, learning to communicate assertively and ask for assistance.

Code of Rights

Right to be treated with respect: People with dementia should be respected. To be able to show them the respect that demented residents deserve, people that support them must ensure that he is not being maltreated physically and emotionally because even though they could not be able to remember things, they are still humans that need respect from others. Respecting them in a way that they are provided with their own preference like how they will be groomed, asking them about their interests, involving them with the activities and not ignoring them, and not forcing them in doing the tasks they do not like.

Right to dignity and independence: People with dementia have their rights toward dignity and privacy. When providing cares, it is very important that windows and doors are closed. One should knock on the door before entering and they must be called with their preferred name. In privacy matters, information that has something to do with them should not be disclosed to anyone else that is not authorized to see it. . It must also be considered that conversations with and about the person and discussions with the family regarding the care needs should always be undertaken in which others could not overhear. Their independence must also be encouraged as much as possible.

Right to be fully informed: Every procedure that is going to be performed with people having dementia must be explained. Although they are demented which means unable to remember things and process it, it is still their right to be fully informed to gain their cooperation with the tasks.

People with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is a developmental disorder which is typically characterized by having a delay or difficulty in areas such as language skills, social behavior, cognitive and thinking skills. It has a variety of severity and intellectual ability, from the severely impaired child that has classical autism, to those kids with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism.

Consequences of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD):

Individual- This disorder usually occurs at the early age. Children are affected in a way that they are having difficulty to interpret the world and what is happening around them in the same way that other kids do. Since children with ASD have difficulties with communication and social interactions, and restricted, stereotyped and repetitive interests or behavior, it limits their ability to live their normal lives. It is like their life has been taken away from them at an early age because they are unable to enjoy their childhood like playing with their peers. It affects the child in a holistic manner, mentally, physically, socially, and emotionally.

Family/Whanau- The family/whanau of a child having an ASD are the ones who are affected the most because they felt like they are carrying a burden in a way that it increases their stress and might develop mental and physical health problems which results into decreased parenting efficacy. It also affects them through the financial strain and time pressures in dealing kids having ASD. The parents, most likely, needs to spend greater time looking after their kid with autism which creates stress and might lead into making mistakes.

Carers- Similar with the family/whanau, the carers would also be required to keep an eye with children having autism. They have to allot much more time with them. This situation builds up a lot of stress which can result into mistakes. A carer might shout or lash out at the kid with autism due to the child committed something out of his condition. The carers, due to excessive stress brought by caring a child with autism, cause burn-out.

Signs and Symptoms

Since ASDs are spectrum disorders, the effects vary in each person and it ranges from very mild to severe. It starts before 3 years old and it lasts throughout the individual’s life, however, there can be improvement with the symptoms over time. Within the first few months of life, there are some kids who are affected with autism may demonstrate indications of future problems but to others, it may not be observed until 24 months or later. There are also some who develop normally until around the age of 18-24 months and stop developing new skills or losing skills they once had. They develop at different rates at different areas. It affects the three different areas the kid’s life such as social behavior in which they have difficulty to understand social interactions, that affects their capability to play or interact with others; language skills in which the kids are having problems with understanding and using verbal and nonverbal communications like body language as well as facial expressions; and cognitive and thinking skills in which children are having trouble to think and behave flexibly, and that they might engage in behaviors that are restricted, obsessive and repetitive. Delays in language, social as well as learning skills may be present, while their walking ability and movement are as the same as their peers. Although, they might have problems with social activities, they work well in solving computer problems or putting puzzles together. In kids with autism, before they learn easy skills, they might still experience learning a hard skill.

Impacts on the Diverse Dynamics of Family/Whanau

Having a child with autism in the family requires a full attention from the parents. Usually, it is the mother who is needed to look after her kid affected with autism. As this happen, the other children which are the siblings of the family member with autism were being neglected since the mother is busy and dedicating her undivided time to look after her child having an autism. This would result into the other children to get jealous which might result into being rebellious. Since the child with autism has cognitive and adaptive restrictions which limits his capacity to live independently, he would rely to his family for the duration of their lives thus a lifelong burden towards the parents and siblings is present. The father of the house would rarely participate in looking after to his child with dementia because he usually works to earn income for his family to support their financial expenses which means he is usually out of their home. As this happen, it somehow destroy the relationship between the parents and their other children who does not have autism. These other children would feel that they have no parents because no one is attending to their needs. Another impact would be embarrassment from the society because of the unusual behavior of their child with autism. Also, the siblings become the target of aggressiveness among their parents due to stress.

Interaction and Response of Individual, Family/Whanau, Carers to Stressors

Since the child with autism has difficulty of social interactions, they have unusual and unexpected responses to their surroundings which is why they are being misunderstood. This increases their stress resulting into confusion and frustration. Autistic children may express anger and fear since this disorder is merely a stress disorder. Although stress and ASD are inseparable, they can be manageable. There are measures that supporter can provide to reduce stress such as eliminating unnecessary distractions since noise can be very stressful for them, providing constant, visible and followed routines since change is a major stressor for the individuals who are autistic, offering choice like playing music of choice, exercise, providing nutritious snacks, or visualization, and effective communication. As the family/wahanau experience emotional and physical stress and at the same time financial constraint, they tend to be depressed and angry. The carers as well, experience those stress which sometimes lead into providing insufficient amount of care to the autistic individuals. The family/whanau and carers should respond to stressors in a positive way by taking a break, rewarding themselves for their hard work, seeking a counseling, asking assistance from a support group or advocacy group, accessing services in the society that provide resources.

Code of Rights

Right to effective communication: Since individuals with autism’s language skills are affected, they must be provided with effective communication. A supporter of the child or even those who surrounds him must communicate in a way that he can understand and not in a brutal way. One must speak to him in a clear, normal tone of voice. When interacting with him, one should understand and consider his situation since he is having difficulty with it. When talking about him, he must be included or be involved.

Right to support: A person with autism needs to be supported. Providing care and assistance, access to services, and meeting his needs or interests are of great importance when handling individuals with autism. Reassurance is a form of support that must be given to the affected child to feel safe and secured. They are the ones who need to be supported the most because what they need is attention from those people who could not understand him.

Right to fair treatment: Everyone should be treated equally, including those individuals with autism. An opportunity to be accepted from the society with no judgment and criticism should be provided to people having autism. It is not morally right to put barriers against them because everyone is created equally.