Family Health Assessment Paper 

Family Health Assessment Paper 

Family Health Assessment Paper 

Family health refers to a status in which the family is a source for its members’ daily living and health. There are various ways to conduct family health assessments, and many family assessment instruments assist health providers with the assessments. A family health assessment offers information about the social factors influencing diseases in a family, which helps to understand better an individual’s health problems (Michaelson et al., 2021). Numerous family-based risks and protective-relational factors impact the onset and course of illness. The purpose of this paper is to analyze findings from a family I interviewed and apply the family systems theory to promote changes in family members.  

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Family Structure

Warren family is a Caucasian family living in Jackson County, GA. The family has five members, Mr. Warren, Mrs Warren, and their three children (two sons and one daughter). Mr Warren is 56 years, a primary school teacher in a private school, and his highest level of education is a Diploma. On the other hand, Mrs. Warren, 50 years, runs a Barbershop and Spa and is a professional masseuse. The first-born son is 27 years old and working as an industrial supervisor. The second-born son is 24 years old and works as a junior advocate in a law firm. Besides, the daughter is 21 years old and is currently studying Bachelor’s of Theatrical Arts and works part-time in a local film studio. The Warren family has an average annual income of $108,500 and falls in the lower middle socioeconomic class. In addition, it is a Protestant family, and they attend church services at least once a month. The family lives in a four-bedroom bungalow in a middle-class estate in Jackson County, GA, which has adequate security, supply of nutritious foods, clean water supply, and transportation options.

Family Health and Health Behaviors

The Warren family has some healthy and unhealthy lifestyle practices, which puts their health at risk of lifestyle diseases. Although there are no major diseases in the family, Mr. Warren is obese while Mrs. Warren, the first-born son, and the daughter are overweight. Obesity and overweight put the members at risk of diabetes, hypertension, heart diseases, and various cancers. The healthy behaviors observed in the family include attending annual health checkups and regular screenings for blood sugar, blood pressure, and cancers. Nevertheless, various unhealthy behaviors were identified, including a sedentary lifestyle, high-caloric diet intake of processed meats and sugars, tobacco smoking, and alcohol consumption. The cases of obesity and overweight in the family are attributed to poor dietary habits and inadequate physical activity, which have led to a mismatch between energy input and output (Park et al., 2020).

Findings

            The functional health pattern strengths identified include Values/Health Perception and Coping. The Values/Health Perception pattern was a strength because the family engages in health promotion and preventive activities, conducts self-exams (breast and testicular), and adheres to follow-up care. The family members perceive their health as vital and the importance of engaging in practices for promoting and maintaining health. For instance, the family goes for regular BP and blood sugar screening since they understand the related risk and perceive the importance of an early diagnosis. In addition, the Coping pattern is a strength since the family members have effective coping strategies and can exert a sense of control over threats to integrity. The family has confidants who they consider the most helpful people in times of stress, which has helped prevent stress disorders.

             Health problems and barriers were noted in the patterns of Nutrition, Activity-Exercise, and Sleep/Rest. Problems in the nutrition pattern include high-caloric intake from junk foods, sweetened drinks, processed meats, and carbohydrates, contributing to unhealthy weight gain. In addition, challenges in the Activity-Exercise pattern include inadequate physical exercise and lack of recreational activities in the family. Inadequate physical exercise is apparent in the family members’ sedentary lifestyles, which has significantly contributed to overweight/obesity (Park et al., 2020). Barriers to the Sleep/Rest pattern include dysfunctional sleep patterns, fatigue, and unhealthy responses to sleep deprivation. The family members reported having sleep onset problems, early awakenings, and inadequate rest-relaxation periods, leading to using sleeping aids like sleeping pills.

Application of Family Systems Theory

Bowen’s family systems theory proposes that a family is an emotional unit. The theory utilizes systems thinking to define the complex interactions in the family unit. It asserts that one nature of a family is that its members are deeply connected emotionally. Besides, families intensely affect the members’ feelings, thoughts, and actions (Calatrava et al., 2022). Family members seek each other’s approval, attention, and support and respond to each other’s expectations, needs, and upsets. The family systems theory can be applied to foster change in the Warren family through emotional interdependence, which will make the members cooperate in engaging in health behaviors and attaining specific health goals (Calatrava et al., 2022). The emotional connectedness in the family that makes them stressed can be used to motivate the members to modify their lifestyle to lower the risk of chronic disorders.

Conclusion

A family assessment is an initial step in establishing the need for additional interventions and the exact areas of a family that require to be addressed. I interviewed the Warren family, a Caucasian low, middle-class family of five members. The family has a prevalence of obesity and overweight, which are attributed to sedentary lifestyles and poor dietary habits. Strengths were identified in Values/Health Perception and Coping patterns, while health problems were noted in the Nutrition, Activity-Exercise, and Sleep/Rest patterns.

References

Calatrava, M., Martins, M. V., Schweer-Collins, M., Duch-Ceballos, C., & Rodríguez-González, M. (2022). Differentiation of self: A scoping review of Bowen Family Systems Theory’s core construct. Clinical Psychology Review, 91, 102101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2021.102101

Michaelson, V., Pilato, K. A., & Davison, C. M. (2021). Family as a health promotion setting: A scoping review of conceptual models of the health-promoting family. PloS one, 16(4), e0249707. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249707

Park, J. H., Moon, J. H., Kim, H. J., Kong, M. H., & Oh, Y. H. (2020). Sedentary Lifestyle: Overview of Updated Evidence of Potential Health Risks. Korean Journal of family medicine, 41(6), 365–373. https://doi.org/10.4082/kjfm.20.0165

Family Health Assessment: Interview Questionnaire

Values/Health Perception

1. How do you perceive the overall family health?
2. What health promotion and prevention activities do you engage in as a family?
3. How do you perceive these health promotion and prevention activities as being beneficial to your health?

Nutrition

1. What are the family’s dietary preferences?
2. Which healthy dietary habits do you practice as a family?
3. Which unhealthy dietary habits are common in the family?

Sleep/Rest

1. How are your sleeping patterns in general?
2. How long do you rest in a day?
3. Which sleep disturbances are common in the family members?

Elimination

1. How would you describe your bowel elimination pattern?
2. How would you describe your bladder elimination pattern?
3. What difficulties do you experience during bowel and bladder elimination?

Activity/Exercise

1. How long do you participate in physical activities in a day?
2. Which recreational activities do you engage in?
3. How would you describe your overall ability to perform activities of daily living?

Cognitive

1. What challenges do you experience in your memory?
2. What barriers do you encounter when making decisions?
3. What challenges are you currently experiencing with communication and language?

Sensory-Perception

1. What pain symptoms are you currently experiencing?
2. What hearing difficulties are prevalent in the family?
3. What vision difficulties do the family members have?

Self-Perception

1. How do you perceive your body image?
2. Which are your abilities?
3. Which mood disorders are prevalent in the family?

Role Relationship

1. How would you describe the relationship among the family members?
2. What are the roles of each family member?
3. To what degree are you satisfied with the family roles?

Sexuality

1. To what degree are you satisfied with your sexuality?
2. What impairments do you experience in sexual functioning?
3. Which reproductive health problems are prevalent in the family?

Coping

1. Which are the common stressors in the family?
2. How do the family members respond to the various life stressors?
3. What approaches do you take as a family to address the life stressors and alleviate the associated anxiety

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Understanding family structure and style is essential to patient and family care. Conducting a family interview and needs assessment gathers information to identify strengths, as well as potential barriers to health. This information ultimately helps develop family-centered strategies for support and guidance.

This family health assessment is a two-part assignment. The information you gather in this initial assignment will be utilized for the second assignment in Topic 3.

Develop an interview questionnaire to be used in a family-focused functional assessment. The questionnaire must include three open-ended, family-focused questions to assess functional health patterns for each of the following:

Values/Health Perception
Nutrition
Sleep/Rest
Elimination
Activity/Exercise
Cognitive
Sensory-Perception
Self-Perception
Role Relationship
Sexuality
Coping
Select a family, other than your own, and seek permission from the family to conduct an interview. Utilize the interview questions complied in your interview questionnaire to conduct a family-focused functional assessment. Document the responses as you conduct the interview.

Upon completion of the interview, write a 750-1,000-word paper. Analyze your assessment findings. Submit your questionnaire as an appendix with your assignment.

Include the following in your paper:

Describe the family structure. Include individuals and any relevant attributes defining the family composition, race/ethnicity, social class, spirituality, and environment.
Summarize the overall health behaviors of the family. Describe the current health of the family.
Based on your findings, describe at least two of the functional health pattern strengths noted in the findings. Discuss three areas in which health problems or barriers to health were identified.
Describe how family systems theory can be applied to solicit changes in family members that, in turn, initiate positive changes to the overall family functions over time.
Cite at least three peer-reviewed or scholarly sources to complete this assignment. Sources should be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.