Family Health Assessment → ESSAY WRITERS

Family Health Assessment

Family Health Assessment about an individual and family is very important when planning care. Family assessment takes consideration of the total aspect of the family. In this essay, Jones family is assessed and information collected and analyzed. The father (48) is a librarian, the mother (42) works as a certified nursing assistant. Three children, two boys ages 12 and 10, one girl age 8. The author is using Gordon’s eleven functional health patterns to help determine the family’s lifestyle (Edelman &Mandel, 2010).

On the health perception and health management the mother is in good health except with occasional minor back pain. The mother goes for annual checkup to her doctors and makes follow ups. The father has not been seeing his doctor for checkups until recently when he was diagnosed with Benign Prostrate Hyperplasia (BPH). The children have their immunization up to date and the mother makes sure they have their annual checkups and follow-ups. The family tries to keep up to healthy life style by eating less fatty home prepared food. The father’s perception about health promotion has recently changed and has been seeing his doctor regularly for checkups.

With nutrition and metabolic pattern, the family is doing well in preparing and eating low fat, low sodium, lots of vegetables, fruits and high fiber diet. Due to the mother’s work schedule, she is not always at home to meet the shared meal time. The parents are particular about encouraging the children to drink water and avoid sugary drinks like soda. Because of the mother’s busy schedule she most times prepares food for the week and store in the refrigerator. On some weekends, the family buys fresh food from farmer’s market. The children are within the appropriate weight for their age. The mother has lost 10 lbs and is working hard with diet and exercise to maintain the favorable body weight she has attained. The father’s weight is 196 lbs and has lost 8 lbs in the last three weeks and plans to continue working on it.

There are different patterns of elimination among members of the family. The father and ten year old boy and girl have regular bowel movement once or twice a day (mostly in the morning). The mother and eldest son experience some constipation and sometimes have to use laxatives such as miralax. They also eat vegetables and fruits to help with bowel management. The rest of the family does not have problems with voiding except the father, who was recently diagnosed with BPH. He sometimes experiences some difficulty voiding. He is on Flomax 0.4mg daily, which is helping him void.

Family-Centered Health Promotion

The family does not have any particular schedule for exercise. The family has the perception that activities and exercise will help improve their health. The children are very active as they ride their bicycles in the neighborhood, play basketball and swim. The father takes an hour walk with a friend three or four times a week. The mother also takes one to two hours walk during the week. There is no television viewing from Monday through Friday evening for children.

The father and mother are sexually active. The family has strong belief in marriage and parenthood as they are devoted Christians. Even though they believe in Christian doctrine, they also believe in family planning and birth control. The mother is presently using intrauterine device as contraceptive (IUD). The husband and wife agreed that the children are enough for them. With the tight budget constraints, they are not looking forward to more children. They do not have any issue with their children having sex education in school.

The family seems to have adequate sleep and rest pattern. The children have between nine to ten hours of sleep. The father sleeps between seven to eight hours. The mother has irregular sleep pattern, as she comes late at night and wakes up early to prepare the children for school. Sometime she stays over at work and comes home in the morning and has little rest as she has to go back to work. However, the family understands her work schedule and do not disturb her when she’s resting and the father helps the children.

There is no family member who is cognitively impaired from the information gathered. The father and mother are educated and are able to make informed decisions about the family health, such as preventive care, nutrition, exercise. Decisions on health issues are discussed between the mother and father and explained to children, if it affects them. They read health news and are able to use that to compare what they think about their health.

The father and the mother are the breadwinners of the family. They are the main decision makers as the children are still below eighteen years. However, all the children have their own roles. The boys work mostly with their father and the girl with her mother. The role performance is working well for them, except that the two boys sometimes argue and try to fight when one tries to exceed his role. To go out on social gathering, everyone is consulted and decision made.

The father has some slight low esteem due to his recent diagnosis of BPH and issues with voiding. The wife is a great support to him. Overall the family’s perception about themselves is good. The parents have good jobs and are financially able to take care for the family. The children are doing well in school and the parents encourage them to participate in extra school activities like sports, debates, drama, in order to identify their talents. All the children have the ambition of going to university.

In terms of coping with stress the family reported that they have tried some coping strategies and helped them. The family believes in prayers as a coping method. They also visit family and close friends as a way of reducing their stress. They give support to each other when one person is experience stress. Six months ago the mother lost her job, was without work for two months. They prayed together and also received support from family and friends.

With sensory perception, the mother sometimes experience mild back pain and when she applies topical pain relieve ointment, the pain goes away. The daughter has myopia (short sightedness) and uses lenses to help her. The family reported that there is no major sensory deficit issue in the family. The children and father always help the mother with domestic work when she complains of back pain. The daughter is always encouraged to use her eye glasses.

WELLNESS DIAGNOSIS

Readiness for enhanced sexuality patterns (Weber, 2005).

The father and mother are practicing birth control and the mother is using IUD. Satisfactory sexual relationship is very important. They accept sex education for their children in school to help them avoiding unwanted pregnancy (Edelman & Mandel, 2010).

Readiness for enhanced activity-exercise pattern (Weber, 2005).

Sedentary life style is not good and activity and exercise are good for a healthy life style. They are very active and like outdoor activities like walking and children playing sports. The activities have helped them maintain or lose some weight (Edelman & Mandel, 2010).

Readiness for enhanced health-seeking behavior (Weber, 2005).

They have regular health maintenance habit and regular checkups. They practice health promotion and prevention. Practicing health promotion activities like physical exams, immunization, exercise, adequate nutrition help the family to maintain a healthy life style (Edelman & Mandel, 2010).