Family Health Assessment
Family Health has become a predominant focus in modern healthcare. Proper health in this basic societal constituent would foster overall higher health standards. Critical care nursing practice has traditionally been focused on addressing the needs of patients with serious health problems and their families. This practice can also be influenced by the various factors that affect the family’s functioning. The functioning of a family member affects the overall system or behavior of the family unit. This is because each individual member of the family has an interconnected relationship with other family members. This paper presents findings and insight from a family Health assessment made on a family, a practical approach to maintaining overall excellent public health standards.
Family Structure
Carl Pinto’s family consists of five individuals. It comprises his spouse Elizabeth Pinto, who is 49 years old, three years younger than Carl, and their children two sons, Fredrick Pinto, who is 22 years old, Caleb Pinto, who is 20 years and a daughter Annette Pinto who is 17 years old. The family practices Christianity, having Elizabeth as their greatest spiritual guide. It is an African-American family with fairly decent living standards and can be categorized as middle class. They reside in a fully refurbished three-bedroomed house in Miami, Florida, overlooking magnificent ocean scenery.
Family Health Status and Health-Centered Behaviors
The family exhibits aspects that may promote as well as hinder proper health. Overall the health status of the family is reasonably decent. There is a good sense of responsibility in activities centered on proper hygiene. Carl Pinto and his sons are great soccer lovers and sometimes engage in playing family soccer games. Fredrick and Caleb often engage in late-night video gaming and television watching. On nutrition, the family takes a balanced diet on rare occasions, as Carl points out, due to strained economic situations. The children often take to unhealthy and extra sugary foods such as chocolates.
Carl admits that family meetings do not take place and that pertinent matters such as sexuality, individual family member stresses and accompanying coping mechanisms, and psychological problems are rarely discussed within the family. Annette is overly conscious when her weight is alluded to and is obese. Elizabeth has constant anxiety over the safety and well-being of her family. Behavior affecting health ultimately determines the well-being of the individual (Hildt-Ciupińska& Pawłowska-Cyprysiak, 2020).
Functional Health Patterns
The most significant health patterns noted within the family are the significant strengths and weaknesses. The greatest strength lies in an overall sense within the family of the importance of health and proper health-seeking behavior. The hygiene standards in terms of personal hygiene and lavatories were exceptional, which promotes health. Carl also ensured his children received the appropriate vaccination as scheduled and acquired medical insurance covering his family. However, some factors may cause negative. The children in the family had poor eating habits consuming unhealthy food, which may lead to nutritional diseases, as evidenced by Annette’s obesity. Kelly and Elizabeth did not participate in physical exercises, while the male children had irregular rest schedules, ultimately affecting their health. Elizabeth does not see the need for regular health check-ups, which may predispose the family to aggravation of unresolved potential health risks. Moreover, there was little psychosocial support in stress management and problem-solving within the family. This factor is implicated in Elizabeth’s anxiety problem.
Family Systems Theory Application
The family systems theory emphasizes the interdependent nature of the entities that make up the family (Garret et al., 2011). This element would be crucial in fostering interventions oriented towards bringing the family together to deal with health deterrent factors within the family, such as stress. It is noteworthy that the state of an individual in the family would ultimately affect the entire family. Therefore interventions to correct health behaviors would be tailored for a specific individual in the family for overall health. Effective interventions, especially with children, would need to entail an evidence-based approach to explaining the consequences of poor health choices. This aspect of family health is significant in solving poor eating habits among the children in the family. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure that all specific entities in the family structure, such as specified roles and interpersonal interactions, are incorporated into the intervention. Relationships within the family are a crucial component of well-being throughout life (Thomas et al., 2017).
In conclusion, The functioning of each individual member of the family affects the overall system or behavior of the family unit. This is because each member of the family has an interconnected relationship with other family members. It also includes macrosystem variables such as ethnicity and family income, which can affect the individual’s behavior within the family.
References
The Family Life Project Key Investigators, Garrett-Peters, P., Mills- Koonce, R., Zerwas, S., Cox, M., & Vernon-Feagans, L. (2011). Fathers’ Early Emotion Talk:
Associations With Income, Ethnicity, and Family Factors. Journal of Marriage and Family, 73(2), 335–353. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00810.x
Hildt-Ciupińska, K., & Pawłowska-Cyprysiak, K. (2020). Positive health behaviors and their determinants among men active on the labor market in Poland.
American Journal of Men’s Health 2020, 14(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1177/1557988319899236
Thomas, P. A., Liu, H., Umberson, D. (2017). Family relationships and well-being. Innovation in Aging, 1(3), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igx025
Appendix
Family-Focused Family Assessment Questionnaire
- Values/ Perception
- Do you consider proper health to be an important element in your family?
- Do you consider your family to be healthy?
- What do you do to promote and sustain health in the family?
- What steps do you take to restore health in the family?
- Nutrition
- Do you find it necessary to ensure that your family takes a proper diet?
- Do you ensure that every meal taken by the family is balanced?
- What does your family’s typical diet consist of regarding nutritional content (Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Essential Vitamins)?
- What are some of the most commonly consumed types of food?
- Sleep/Rest
- Do you think quality sleep and rest are essential components of proper health?
- How many hours do you and your family members sleep on average?
- Do you consider that your family exhibits good sleeping patterns and that everyone gets sufficient rest?
- Elimination
- Do you consider elimination a critical aspect of health?
- How frequent is your elimination pattern?
- Do you maintain proper standards of hygiene in your family washrooms and lavatories?
- Activity/Exercise
- Do you and your family engage in regular physical exercises? If so, what would a typical exercise routine for you and your family involve?
- Do you consider physical exercise an important component of healthy living?
- Do family members engage in activities that require physical exertion, such as sports?
- Cognitive
- Do you and your family engage in intellectually stimulating activities such as reading?
- Do you consider yourself and your family members to have practical cognitive skills?
- Do you have a family member presenting some deficits in cognitive skills? If so, what do you do to aid the family member?
- Sensory-Perception
- Do all your senses function effectively? If not, what sense organ(s) present a degree of difficulty in terms of sensory perception?
- Does any of the members have a sensory perception loss/ deficit?
- Do you take steps to get regular check-ups of the critical sense organs?
- Self-Perception
- Do you consider self-perception to be an important component of well-being
- Are you comfortable with aspects of yourself, such as your body orientation, skin color, and appearance?
- Do you consider others’ opinions on your appearance?
- Role Relationship
- Have you established dedicated roles for members of your family? If so, do you rotate these roles, and are the members comfortable with the roles assigned?
- Do you consider your family to be properly functional?
- Do you consider the relationship within the family to be good?
- Sexuality
- Do you consider sexual health a critical component of health?
- Do you address matters of sexuality within the family?
- Are you aware of the sexual state in terms of sexual activity of your children?
- Coping
- Do you frequently encounter stressful situations as an individual and as a family?
- What are some of the methods you apply in dealing with problems and such stressful ordeals as an individual and family member?
- How do you deal with conflict that occurs or originates within the family?
