Case Study On Brent's Life

Brent is a 62 year old male who has recently undergone shoulder surgery, the surgery hasn't been that successful. Brent is 62 which places Brent in the middle aged category of adulthood which is roughly between the ages of 35/40-64 years. Brent is very family orientated and loves spending time with his nine grandchildren who he drops off and picks up from school everyday. Unfortunately because of Brents surgery not going to well it has prevented him from doing the school drop off/pick up which he seemed to thoroughly enjoy. Brent is said to be a very spiritual person meaning that he connects with his family and friends through their own beliefs and traditions which right now seem to be bringing him down at this time in his life. There are
Something he looks forward to is transporting his grandchildren to school everyday, but from his unsuccessful shoulder surgery Brent has lost the ability to drive which therefore prevents him from sharing that part of his life with his grandchildren which could ultimately alter the strength of the relationship they all share. Not being able to be involved in his grandchildren’s life as much as he used to could essentially bring his ability to have hope in keeping those relationships strong as he wont be a big part of their life anymore. This would put a large amount of stress and pressure on Brent to try and keep the relationships strong with his grandchildren. According to Tornstam, L, loneliness is most common in old age where social losses and functional health restrictions start to become more frequent, “loneliness is a powerful trigger for a variety of disadvantageous changes in health and well-being” (Tornstam, L (2007). Stereotypes of old people persist). In relation to Brent’s situation the social losses that he is losing would be building stronger relationships with his grandchildren and his health restriction would be his limited shoulder movement. A suggestion for maintaining the relationship with his family and for Brent to still be involved in his grandchildren’s lives could be to spend time with them after school, help with homework or take them out on the weekends with the rest of their family. This would ensure that the bond between them would stay strong. Brent would feel as though he is still helping and having a good influence on their lives as well as benefiting seeing them grow. From the book, Growing Older: Quality Of Life In Old Age - Extending quality of life: it says “The qualitative study confirmed the importance of grandchildren to grandparents. The grandparent-grandchild relationship was the most important in their