scenario  You work at CareShore home and community services

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scenario 

You work at CareShore home and community services.

You have just started to visit Anna to provide support to her at home. Before you supported Anna, you visited to provide support for her husband Kostas, who now resides at the CareShore residential facility.

Anna is still at home and is missing having Kostas with her. She used to love to cook for him but since he is at CareShore, she has lost interest in cooking and has started to not bother to feed herself. She appears to have lost weight. You have noticed Anna's low spirits and that she doesn't have all the usual groceries in the kitchen cupboards and the vegetable patch in the garden is starting to look unkempt. Previously Anna would have a Greek treat ready for your visit and she would urge you to eat some when you made her a cup of tea, but this has stopped as well.

Often Anna would have her friend Dulcie visiting during the day. Dulcie lives close by down the street and she and Anna share a love of the garden. They have known each other for forty years. When you ask Anna about Dulcie, she is vague and says she is not sure what Dulcie is doing, she seems to be too busy to visit.

When you ask her, Anna says she has not visited Kostas in two weeks, as she is worried that it will upset him to see her, and it is a long way on the bus to CareShore. She says she feels guilty that she could not look after him like he wanted at home. She says she was too weak and she is useless. Anna cries and says she misses him, she misses feeling him beside her in bed at night, and that her life is empty.

Anna is walking more slowly than she usually does and is always wearing her slippers, whereas before she always wore her shoes and stockings during the day. She says her arthritis is playing up and she sometimes gets a bit short of breath from her asthma.

Anna says Sia and Irene (her daughters) visit when they can but she does not like to bother them as they have busy lives.

When you are talking to Anna, Sia arrives and Anna immediately looks brighter. She tells Sia she is busy and coping well with her support worker's assistance around the home. Sia looks worried.

When you leave Anna's home you find Sia waiting outside. She asks to speak with you and reveals the following;

·        The family are very worried about Anna, as she will not let them assist her and she will not go to live with any of them.

·        Anna has told her family that she has been visiting Kostas but they have found out from CareShore that she has not visited for two weeks.

·        Sia doesn't know what supports she can access to assist her and Irene to care for their mother and she is finding it difficult to take the carer role. Anna has always been the 'rock' of the family caring for Kostas and helping with grandchildren.

·        Irene is a nurse, and she is worried that Anna is sick and won't admit it. She has asked her to go to the doctor but Anna tells her that she is fine.

Sia asks you not to tell Anna she has spoken with you. She does not wish to upset or embarrass her mother.

questions

Describe how the family structures or patterns listed below may impact on your client? 

1. A close family where a number of generations live together
2. A single parent family where there is little or no contact with absent parent or their relatives
3. A single person who has no long-term partner
4. An aged couple who are estranged from their children
5. A couple who are life partners who have become estranged from their families because of their partnership.
6. A family where there are a number of adult children who are estranged from each other
7. A person with no relatives or family
8. A person with a family that they identify as family but who are not blood relatives or legally related to the person.
9. A person from a culture where familial relationships are not necessarily associated with parentage

Now that Kostas is in residential care, describe 3 strategies that residential staff can use (and that you as the community support worker for Anna can support) to include family and carers in Kostas' care.