To complete this assignment, read the scenario below and address the specific questions and issues indicated. Review the SOC313 Family Document for specific information on each member of the family.

Grandmother Ella has had cancer for years now and has followed alternative remedies from the time she was first diagnosed. Ella had a period of remission; however, the cancer returned and has metastasized to her bones, liver, and lungs. She is in the hospital after collapsing from weakness. She is being released from the hospital as she wishes to spend her last days and months at home. Ella has her preferences for care, though she is now so weak that she has given up in many ways. The family members are each experiencing their own fears and are grieving as they face the loss that will occur when Ella’s life ends. Ella feels stressed by the discord and discomfort of family members.

For this assignment, you are required to use the outline form with subtopic headers from the Week 3 assignment. Address the following items in your work:

Assignment: Period of Remission

Assignment: Period of Remission

Synthesize the current research that is relevant to this scenario. Discuss the current practices for end of life and palliative care from the Western Medicine as well as the Complementary and Alternative Medicine perspectives.
Comprehensively discuss the cultural and/or traditional issues that could arise at this time. Consider how the integration of Complementary and Alternative Medicine and beliefs, mainstream medical practices, and cultural/traditional rituals and practices might create issues and what they might include.
Describe how the family might react to each of the following possible scenarios:
Ella wishes to continue the Complementary and Alternative practices.
Ella is coerced into following mainstream medical advice.
Ella’s husband, John, insists that, as father and husband, his family traditions should be followed.
Examine the biological basis for care and describe how the choices for care might affect the other family members with respect to their individual problems, if at all.
Son Sam, the alcoholic
Daughter Lila, with Type II diabetes
Grandson Josh, starting to have drug problems
Granddaughter Lucy, bipolar with more entrenched drug problems
Daughter-in-law, Sarah’s stress related to her family’s medical issues (son with leukemia and brother with HIV)
Discuss the micro, meso, and macro influences affecting both the patient and the diverse family members in this scenario as impacted by Ella’s medical condition and prognosis.
What are the pertinent and likely family (micro) conflicts and differences, and concerns that could be encountered?
How is the neighborhood and extended family (meso) reacting to the situation?
Using your local area, research and discuss two community resources (macro) that support Ella’s needs for care and/or improve her quality of life. Evaluate the ability of these community resources to meet the needs of this diverse family’s circumstances adequately.
Discuss the relevant medical issues and the advantages and disadvantages of hospital versus home. In this case, when discussing medical issues use appropriate medical terminology.
Discuss the psychological and social issues that are present and will possibly be more pronounced at this stressful time. How has the fact that this illness has been ongoing (chronic) affected the family?
Analyze the current scenario as it pertains to diversity, as well as to cultural, psychological, and social perspectives and influences, taking into account the stories that you have been discussing throughout the course.
Discuss the impact of lifespan development on the perspectives of the various members of the family (i.e., their intellect, cognitive abilities, insight, and judgment) as well as their sociocultural perspectives, preferences, understandings, and positions on the situation.
The Final Paper

Must be 8 to 10 double-spaced pages in length (not including title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Must include a separate title page with the following:
Title of paper
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted
Must use five scholarly sources (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.in addition to the course text (six total).
Must document all sourced material in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Must include a separate reference page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

 

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.