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, prompting the mobilization of the family. This article presents three sets of questions that examine for patterns of family mobilization: positive 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 couples. Brief case studies are used to describe approaches for assisting these couples in terms of both health monitoring and marital interactions involving anger during health decline. A procedure of deliberate paralleling for working with couples who display an especially inflexible interpersonal arrangement is outlined. Implications are drawn for therapists' education.