Therapy with aging families: rationale, opportunities and challenges

Gerontological research provides sufficient evidence of the central role of families in the lives of older adults to warrant serious concern about families as a locus of intervention. Whether independent or dependent, older adults experience families as integral to their daily life and wellbeing (Shanas, 1979). The application of family therapy techniques and theories to aging families has been slow to emerge, however. Family therapy models that address the structure or functioning of the family are only rarely discussed as relevant to older adults (Qualls, 1995; Shields et al., 1995), and research investigating the impact of family therapy is rare. The purposes of this paper are to document the solid rationale for family therapy in later life, using one common later life process, cognitive deterioration, to illustrate the conditions under which family therapy would be the treatment of choice, and to suggest future directions and serious challenges to research on family therapy outcomes.