Scenario: A woman who worked as a bookkeeper for over a decade leaves her job to help her husband run his delicatessen. As time passes, her husband notices that she is becoming increasingly forgetful, e.g., not filling orders and even not remembering to turn off the meat slicer. Because of this, the man tells her that she cannot help him anymore, which devastates the wife.

Care based on MI results: After meeting with the husband (who mentions the wife’s sadness of not being able to help him with his work), I suggested that there may be something she can still do. After learning that she was a former bookkeeper, who has always loved numbers, I asked if she’d ever done any number-related tasks at the deli, which she had not. I proposed he have her do things like taking inventory of supplies and counting cash at the end of the day. I informed him that her work would need to be checked, but he should try it since it will help her feel like she’s contributing. To his surprise, she did much better than he thought she would and the activities gave her a sense of purpose.