Introduction
Family assessment ensures that information is gathered about certain families. Family assessment helps families to identify, prevent and solve problems. It helps to understand a family and identify its strengths and goals. Family assessment is a process that is ongoing for families that share the same characteristics. Relationship building is one purpose of family assessment. Building relationships in a family helps explore strengths of individuals in the family and help create respect and trust among family members. Family assessment is built on principles of strength. People are built to overcome challenges and hence helping family members identify their strengths enables creation of a plan that come up with change (David, 2009).
Identifying family data
The family that I selected was from Lawrenceville, Georgia. The detailed study of the family was very interesting. The experience proved to be helpful and presented new skills and knowledge. The Hampton family was an extended one which comprised of Mr. Hampton who was forty years old, Mrs. Hampton who was thirty five years old, their two year old daughter and sixty five years old mother to Mr. Hampton. Mrs. and Mr. Hampton come from the same family and religious background and hence describe their marriage as great. The Hamptons spend time together during weekends by going for picnics in the nearby park. Mr. Hampton is a Catholic, while Mrs. Hampton is Anglican. They are religious people and their religious backgrounds have not affected their relationship (David, 2009). The Hamptons can afford basic needs and various wants times when their budget is not high. Using the Friedman Family Assessment Model the family got assessed.
Developmental Stage and History of Family
Data related to educations and occupation showed that Mr. Hampton was a bank clerk at one of the banks in the City of Lawrenceville, Georgia. He had passed through high school and four years for his university degree. Mr. Hamptons mother who is much older still works at the government library where she reads stories to children. She has two years of college education in early childhood education. Mrs. Hampton does not have a job and she is currently a stay at home mum taking care of their two year old daughter. She studied a degree course in hospitality at the university for three years. She used to work as a supervisor at a major hotel in the city before she delivered her daughter. Their daughter Ashley Hamptons who is two years old suffer from autism. Mr. Hampton’s father died in a road accident when Mr. Hampton was in high school. His father worked as a plumber and was a perfect healthy man. Mrs. Hampton’s parents live in Lawrenceville, Georgia and they visit their daughter when they can. Also, Mrs. Hamptons visits her parents when accompanied by her two sisters. They are a close knit family that gets along with everyone.
Environmental data
The environmental assessment showed that the Hamptons were very careful and had invested in home safety. The home safety assessment test showed that the Hamptons had done about seventy percent of the required home safety recommendations. In future they planned to implement twenty percent and ten percent of the recommendations did not fit on their homestead. The Hamptons live in a very quiet neighborhood that does not have a history of societal vices such as drug abuse or incidences that require police intervention often. The Hamptons have a very close relationship with their neighbors and get invited to attend neighborhood functions such as birthdays among other special events. Also, the Hamptons ensure that they know the wellbeing of their neighbors by paying visits and discussing everyone’s wellbeing (Greenhaus, 2014). The family has two vehicles which are used by Mr. and Mrs. Hamptons. However, Mrs. Hampton does not drive for long hours because she was recently diagnosed with diabetes which got accompanied by high blood pressure. Since they have majority of their relatives in the city they have not tried to travel out of the city since they go married three years ago.
They have good friends and relatives who support them in any way. Whenever Mrs. Hamptons is at home friends and families always pass by to visit and help with her daughter. The Hamptons do not mind receiving help from during emergencies form their social group. When Mrs. Hamptons had labor pains her husband was very ill from pneumonia and the relatives helped to take her to the emergency room.
Family Structure
Questionnaires helped to access the family structure of the Hamptons. The Hamptons have admirable communication styles, they communicate effectively and frequently. While at work Mr. Hampton calls his wife twice of thrice during the day to know how his family is doing. Also, when they have problems they solve them without involving the relatives and friends. Mr. and Mrs. Hampton make their decisions together. However, Mr. Hamptons has more power in making more of the decisions in their household. The Hamptons have a sense of belonging and love to spend time together always whenever they can. They have created a strong family unit and they also sometimes give each other space to explore individual activities. The Hamptons are flexible when it comes to schedules and structuring their family especially in decision making (Greenhaus, 2014).
Flexibility has created a happier environment for everyone in the family. The respect in this family is recognized because they seem to take each other’s needs into consideration. The respect between Mr. Hampton’s mother and his wife has helped her to contribute ideas in the family without fear. The Hamptons indicated that they do not hold grudges against each other and always forgive each other in order to move forward with happiness and not harm their fragile daughter. Communication seems to be the most important value in this family. The Hamptons show a very high sense of responsibility to everyone in the society.
Family functions
The Hamptons have divided roles within their family. Mr. Hampton has the role of taking care of work that is outside based while Mrs. Hamptons ensures that she takes care of their daughter and most of the inside chores. Mrs. Hamptons does not complain about her husband not helping with chores since he helps her a lot and do not conflict on their roles. Their main support is from relative and friends who are from the same community (Kaakinen & Birenbaum, 2012).
An assessment on their healthcare resources showed that the Hamptons were happy with the care given by their health care provider. The couple believes that health results from being surrounded by family during sad and happy times. The Hamptons have used Lawrenceville health center regularly for the checkups and follow of their daughter. They indicated that it is only during emergencies that they use other health services. Mr. Hampton’s family health is covered with medical insurance form the bank where he works. They have excellent access to health care when needed.
Family Stress and Coping
An evaluation on family stress and coping showed that the family deals with Mrs. Hampton’s diabetes, high blood pressure and their daughters’ autism. They cope with this stress through communicating to each other frequently during day and night. The family has the stress of Mrs. Hampton not being able to be outdoors because of the special care their daughter requires and the fatigue she suffers due to diabetic medication that put her down sometimes. Their coping mechanism is that her husband does all the outside duties and sometimes when he comes in the evening he helps with household chores such as cleaning. This family is very strong due to their closeness to one another. They communicate effectively and agree on most things together. These couple coordinates well with their roles. Also, the availability and access to community resources help them a lot. Their friends and relatives also offer much help to support them (Greenhaus, 2014).
Family Nursing Diagnosis
The assessment showed that Mr. Hamptons brother suffers from diabetes and hypertension. This puts Mr. Hamptons at risk of being diagnosed with diabetes since it could be hereditary. Mrs. Hampton already has diabetes and suffers from obesity and high blood pressure. Also, two of Mrs. Hampton’s sisters suffer from diabetes and their daughter Ashley could be at risk of having diabetes. The Hamptons indicated that they did not eat healthy. This indicated that they needed to get taught on how to eat healthy and have healthy lifestyles. Mrs. Hamptons diabetes and obesity could getter better with diet and exercise.
The exercises done while doing chores is not enough for Mrs. Hampton’s health, which could start deteriorating if she does not change her lifestyle. Mr. Hampton’s mother smokes about two cigarettes in a day. Smoking at her age makes her vulnerable to lung cancer and also it is not conducive for their young daughter to inhale the smoke. Although Mr. Hamptons mother insisted that she smokes outside, during an assessment visit she was found smoking in the house. Mrs. Hamptons spends most of the time with her daughter and only does chores when she sleeps. Even though, she has the necessary care to develop maturely. The Hamptons are very protective of their two year old daughter (David, 2009).
Summary
The Hamptons are a healthy family given the many characteristics they displayed on health matters. The couple communicates well and understands each other. They also get support from friends and relatives. The family showed knowledge of home safety issues and intend to make their environment safer. Also, since it was Mr. Hampton and his mother who work in that household there may be some financial constraints that were not brought about by this assessment. They carry out their roles effectively and avoid conflicts between them (Kaakinen & Birenbaum, 2012). The diagnosis of Mrs. Hampton’s diabetes is a result of her weight and eating habits. However, with exercise she can reduce her health risks so that she can focus more on her daughter who needs more attention.
Conclusion
Friedman Family Assessment Model is an effective tool when it comes to family assessment. It assesses families on many aspects such as safety, spiritual, physical, and social psychological, economic among many more aspects. Friedman Family Assessment Model however, has limitations because it does not provide an assessment on issues such as financials, diet and exercise. It does not give a very specific problem facing a family and covers the problems in general. For example, Mrs. Hampton’s obesity is a problem to her health but could not get assessed because the Friedman Family Assessment Model does not have that aspect. At first the rapport with family was not great due to all the personal details that I had to ask, but with continued exercise I gained the courage. Using Friedman Family Assessment Model to assess the Hamptons experience was not one to get forgotten. It is important to create a good rapport with the family being assessment in community health. Such an experience exposes students to holistic care (Kaakinen & Birenbaum, 2012).
References
David, O. (2009). Circumplex Model of family systems: VIII. Family assessment and
intervention. Retrieved from <http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1989-33926-001>
Greenhaus, J. (May 2014). When Work And Family Are Allies: A Theory Of Work-Family
Enrichment. Retrieved from <http://amr.aom.org/content/31/1/72.short>
Kaakinen, J. R., & Birenbaum, L. K. (2012). Family development and family nursing assessment. n M. Stanhope & J. L. Lancaster, Public health nursing: Population-centered health care in the community (8th ed., pp.599-623). Maryland Heights, MO: Elsevier Mosby.
