Family Health Assessment Part 1
Values /health perception
a) What is your family definition of health? Health is the general state of wellbeing and
absence of illness.
b) What aspect of health is most important to you as a family? Prevention illness and
infections highly contagious such as GI and URTIs.
c) What do you do to manage health issues and regain healthy status? We normally call the
family doctor for guidance and management.
a) What is the most suitable definition of nutrition? Consumption of a well-balanced diet.
b) What types of foods do you have at the moment in storage? French beans, chicken, rice,
and pasta with some fruits such as oranges and apples.
c) What are some of the barriers to healthy nutrition in your family? The cost of a well-
balanced meal is not easily affordable.
Sleep/rest
a) What is the common time for waking up in the morning? Normally at 6am because of the
kids going to school and work preparation.
b) What is your daily sleep and wake time routine in the family? After taking supper we
normally stay for approximately hour then everybody starts taking rest especially the kids
go first. After waking up we all take a shower and prepare for the day’s activities.
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c) How do you feel when you wake up in the morning? Most of the time I’m very okay and
lively though there are sometimes when I wake up feeling tired.
Elimination
a) How do you feel about your family’s urinary and frequency patterns? Quite normal as I
emphasize on the importance of taking water after every meal.
b) How do you feel about your family’s bowel movement patterns? Regular as everyone
visits the washroom at least once for a long call.
c) Does any member of the family have any special condition that requires accommodation?
None at my household.
Activity/exercise
a) What is your family’s view of exercising and physical activity? We all allow for physical
exercises every Saturday because we cannot manage in between the week. We visit the
park with kids so I think we are not badly off.
b) How many times do you exercise in a week? Once.
c) What types of activities are you often involved in? Walking from the office to my car, on
Wednesdays I walk to work. My kids are well involved because they are members of the
soccer team.
Cognitive
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a) How do you make family decisions? If it concerns the children we discuss the issues with
them before making a decision. Regarding major decision I discuss with my husband and
consult my mother when necessary.
b) Do you get confused while making choices and decisions? Not really.
c) Is there any member of the family with concentration disorders? No.
Sensory-perception
a) Which is the most commonly used sense in the family? I think sight and hearing.
b) Does anyone in the family have sensory deficits? None.
c) How is the eyesight of everyone in the family? My small kid is short sighted and wears
glasses.
Self-perception
a) What do you think about the family’s future? I really do not know about that at the
moment. Never thought about it.
b) Are all members hopeful of the coming days? Yes, they all look forward to tomorrow.
c) How do you view your family’s status according to social classification? Maybe average
or middle class.
Role relationship
a) What is the relationship between the husband and the wife? Excellent.
b) How do kids relate with one another? They are good friends.
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c) How do parents and children relate? The coexistence is mutual as they are also involved
in family affairs.
Sexuality
a) How many members of the family are sexually active? Only the parents.
b) How often do the parents have sex? Twice or thrice a week.
c) What is the family’s definition of sexuality and sex? Sexuality is one’s attraction to
intimacy whereas sex is the act of intercourse.
Coping
a) How does the family deal with stressful situations? We discuss any issue altogether and
come up with a solution.
b) What are the most stressful situations in the family? Financial problems.
c) Who are the members responsible for managing various situations in the family? The
parents mostly but sometimes the grand parents also help out.
Family structure
The family structure is considered to be the traditional family organization in the United
States that is comprised of the father, mother, and the kids. However, recently there have
been changes in that since other new forms of families have developed over the years (Brown
& Manning 2015). Mrs Lisa Monroe’s family is a basic typical American family with the
husband and three kids. The eldest kid is years, male, followed by another brother at 12yrs,
and a younger sister who is 7. The husband is a black American born and raised in New York
and Mrs Lisa is Caucasian from Seattle. The family is fairly stable as all the kids are enrolled
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in a well doing school and they live in Massachusetts in a three bedroomed apartment. The
husband is a bank teller accountant and the wife is a cateress in one of the restaurants in the
city. They are a Christian based family with all members attending church regularly on all
Sundays. Additionally, the mother is one of the members of the church women association.
They have some few hours to spare with their kids at the evening unless when the mother has
to handle work at late hours in the night. The father usually takes care of everything when
she is not around with the help of the sons.
Health behaviors
The family is well jived to promotion of health and prevention of illness. The mother has
trained the kids on the importance of good personal hygiene, and a good environment hence
rarely is there any dirtying of the house. They observe great care with sanitation and cooking
to prevent any GE infections (McEachan et al.,2016). Being employed in restaurant, she
takes very good care of her family and also maintains their dieting and nutrition which is a
key component in health promotion. The husband was a smoker and used to take alcohol but
has recently quit smoking habit and alcohol use is very occasional. The school environment
is well conducive for the kids and they rarely get ill apart from common cold infections. The
family does not believe in herbal medicine or traditional forms of healing and thus they
always seek medical attention from their family doctor in case of one of the members falling
ill. The only problem with maintaining a healthy lifestyle is lack of space for the kids to play
while at home due to city life congestion. However, the parents ensure that they must visit
the park every weekend for the kids to stretch and make out some runs on the field.
Functional health patterns
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One of the major strengths of the family is nutrition. Mrs Lisa is very cautious about what
the children consume and thus she ensures that they maintain a balanced diet althrough
(Wright et al.,2017). She allows limited consumption of junk food for the kids which is only
during the weekends and focuses on intake of fruits and vegetables even though they are
quite expensive to acquire at the city. Additionally, the family is a well united and organized
entity that has effective coping mechanisms and decision making skills. Hence, whenever the
children or the parents are faced with tough situations they can rely on one another for help.
Lisa’s parents are well off and they additionally support them whenever necessary thus they
rarely struggle to make it. Some of the areas faced with challenges include the physical
activity and exercise, sleep and rest, and sexuality. The problem with exercise and activity is
that the children do not have a playing around the house where they can go out to play with
the neighbors. For sleep and rest, the parents, Mr and Mrs Monroe are usually faced with
long schedule working hours and most of the time they do not get enough time to sleep. Even
their elder son spends some night hours awake studying for the final examinations. Sexuality
comes in the issues with adolescence for both brothers as they have started becoming
explorative in regards to trying out new things with girls. The parents have been forced to
keep on advising them on how to manage their emotions and physical desires. They have
enrolled them in a program for sex study around the neighbourhood which they attend once
per week.
Application of family systems theory
The family systems theory was first introduced by Dr Murray Bowen and he explains that
the family is a common entity and thus the individuals in a family cannot be understood as a
person since they have emotional ties and blood relationship (Smith & Karam 2018). Thus,
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families are systems of interconnected systems and interdependent relations. To understand a
single member is not possible when in isolation. When trying to understand the correlation of
family members, it is very important to remember that in the system, each member has a role
to play and a certain set of rules to follow and adhere to (Major & Fisher 2017). It is very
difficult to have a proper familial system is every individual does not serve their purpose.
The parents should provide for and take care of their children to prevent them from lacking
basic needs and falling ill. The children should also play their role in respecting and obeying
their parents. They should abide by what they are told and commit themselves to a making
their parents proud especially when it comes to education. As a family, application of the
theory in Lisa’s household helps improve their relationship among one another and their
coexistence in the household. Hence all kids should closely follow both parents’ advice and
restrict themselves from bad and risky habits.
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References
Brown, S. L., Manning, W. D., & Stykes, J. B. (2015). Family structure and child well‐being:
Integrating family complexity. Journal of Marriage and Family, 77(1), 177-190.
Major, S., & Fisher, A. (2017). Black Box Concept in Family Systems Theory. Encyclopedia
of Couple and Family Therapy, 1-3.
McEachan, R., Taylor, N., Harrison, R., Lawton, R., Gardner, P., & Conner, M. (2016). Meta-
analysis of the reasoned action approach (RAA) to understanding health
behaviors. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 50(4), 592-612.
Smith, M., & Karam, E. (2018). Morphogenesis in Family Systems Theory. Encyclopedia of
Couple and Family Therapy, 1-2.
Wright, R. S., Waldstein, S. R., Kuczmarski, M. F., Pohlig, R. T., Gerassimakis, C. S., Gaynor,
B., … & Zonderman, A. B. (2017). Diet quality and cognitive function in an urban
sample: findings from the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life
Span (HANDLS) study. Public health nutrition, 20(1), 92-101.
