Assignment task: Mr. Weber, a retired federal employee, and his wife of more than forty years seemed to be coping well on his relatively generous retirement pay and extensive health insurance plan. For more than forty years, they lived together in a traditional blue-collar neighborhood in a house they had inherited from Mrs. Weber's parents. The Weber's two children both live more than 2000 miles away but regularly talk on the telephone. At least once a year, the children along with grandchildren visit the Weber's. From all external appearances, the Weber's are an octogenarian couple successfully aging. That misconception was shattered late one evening when Mrs. Weber tumbled down a flight of stairs breaking both wrists and cracking a vertebrae in her neck. The fall was partially caused because Mrs. Weber did not want to turn on a light while she went to the bathroom for fear that the light would awaken Mr. Weber. Given Mrs. Weber's extensive osteoporosis, her broken wrists required extensive reconstructive hand surgery and many weeks of hospitalization. During Mrs. Weber's extensive hospitalization, Mr. Weber's own health problems became more evident. His wife had concealed his increasing frailty including the fact that he had incurred a number of falls around the house. These falls may have been associated with a drinking problem that Mr. Weber had developed. He drank partially to escape the loneliness brought on by his no longer being able to see friends from his former place of employment. He was never an out-going person and seemed less so after his retirement. Thus, he never developed new friends to compensate for those he once had at work. When he retired from his job, he essentially retired also from his friendship network and, overtime, developed a severe case of depression. His increasing problem with drinking alcohol was most likely a case of self-medication. With the deception uncovered, the Weber's two children became more involved in monitoring their parent's situation. They also secured formal case management and home health care services to facilitate Mrs. Weber's recovery. The children also provided extensive periods of social support to both infirm parents during Mrs. Weber's rehabilitation. Once she regained much of her strength, the children backed off allowing Mrs. Weber to again resume much of the responsibility for caring for her husband. However, children also empowered close friends and neighbors to regularly check on the older Weber couple and to call either of the children at first sign of any difficulties.
Discussion the issues in this scenario.