DelCampo says once someone has gone through therapy, they've changed. That change will have an impact on all the other people they interact with in the family and community. DelCampo takes part in an ongoing research project with scientists at 10 other Western universities. In a study of 328 women and 187 men, the researchers found that people did perceive the effects of work stress and conflict as influencing the whole family. Many enlightened men with very good intentions have the erroneous notion that they are going to help their wives with the dishes, housecleaning and child care.
Men have to go the next step to take responsibility for household tasks.
In another project, DelCampo and graduate student Elizabeth Knapp wrote a paper about how hospice teams can use family systems theory to help families deal with dying relatives. In hospice programs, terminally ill patients return home to die with support from professionals including registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, social workers, counselors and nursing assistants. These patients receive pain medication but no other medical interventions to artificially prolong their lives. In this approach, the team deals with how the grown children and the surviving spouse are coping with the situation, whether the family wants chaplain services, and how they can all cope after the death. In a third project, DelCampo and former graduate student Diane Wolf Tatem did a case study of a child who was diagnosed with selective mutism.