Healthy families, promote the wellbeing of their family members through the provision of emotional support and companionship, positive relationships with the family members, economic security, the psychological and physical health of the family members. Imbalances in the family dynamics lead to the family problems witnessed in the present day. Imbalanced family dynamics cause problems such a child development, addiction and violent tendencies; it also leads to personality disorders among children and adults (Dayton, 2016). Children draw from the synchrony and wellbeing of their parents, positive energy projected within a family gives rise to high immunity and mental health of the children. On the other hand, when a family is ridden with problems and negative energy will affect and diminish the children’s immunity.
In this case, the family comprises of both parents a teenage daughter and a younger son. The father is the sole breadwinner while the mother is a stay at home. She takes care of the house chores and sometimes attends school events in the children’s school. The daughter recently joined high school. The father is an alcoholic with violent tendencies and towards the elder child. Due to this, he has a problem keeping up with the household bills and sometimes he fails to meet basic family needs. He intimidates his wife to the extent that she cannot take up a part-time job to help out with the family expense. He demands that his daughter should not make friends with other children at school to prevent her from agreeing with her family situation. He limits his family’s interactions with neighbors and other family members in times when he is present to keep them from asking for help. He wants to project the image of the perfect family to outsiders; therefore, he forces his wife to maintain a spotless house and demands that the children be dressed in their best clothes when leaving the house or in the presences of guests. He disregards the needs of the children to interact and express themselves as part of their healthy development. As a result of his constant drinking, he keeps getting terminated from his job which results in the family moving to a different town or city where he can find a new job. The children do not respond to questions in class and have trouble relating with their age mates and classmates due to fear and anxiety.
The family is psychologically unhealthy, ridden with economic and interrelation problems as well as the lack of cohesion and communication. The teenager has exhibited signs of aggressive behavior and alternating with depression and suicidal tendencies. She is very protective of her younger brother and will stand up to anyone who tries to hurt him, however; she will cower down when threatened or intimidated by her father. When at school, she keeps to herself, and she is aggressive towards anyone who tries to befriend her, she sometimes talks to herself which causes some of the children to alienate her. She is, however scared of her teachers and any person in a position of authority. The younger son is underdeveloped compared to children his same age. He is not happy or curious as the children, he interacts with at the playground. He is anxious and afraid of adults: he only interacts with his mother and sister. His speech development slow and he lacks the carefree attitude of children. The mother is depressed and lacks the courage to stand up for her children. She lives in denial assuming that everything is fine and accepts that the actions of her husband towards her and her children are normal.
Living in extreme emotional conditions such as those caused by addicted and violent parents can cause children to grow up with fear and anxiety. They become overwhelmed with emotion and lack the developmental sophistication to understand, cope with their situations. This lack of developmental capacity they develop intense unhealthy defenses that further impair their emotional and psychological abilities. Households with a parent who is addicted or with violent tendencies are likely to be dysfunctional. They have difficulties relating to healthy families do: often the children have to take up roles that are meant for their parents. The children may also experience stunted growth as a defense mechanism of the parental addiction. Children from dysfunctional family’s experience high levels of psychological distress compared to those from healthy functioning families. They also tend to undergo higher rates of juvenile delinquency, they lack proper care and attention and tend to act out. Children from families with addicted fathers tend to turn to drug and substance abuse. Parental substance abuse is a strong predictor of the use of the drug in the adolescents.
The alcoholic addiction of the father challenges the family’s ability to function normally both emotionally and behaviorally (Dumaret, Constantin-Kuntz, & Titran, 2009). A normal family can develop a sense of balance which, is health for all the family members. Family therapists suggest that there is a need for every family to develop a homeostasis. Alcoholic families, on the other hand, develop a dysfunctional balance of psychological homeostasis. Their lives are focused on trying to hide what is happening in their family situations; the kids are left to defend for themselves and build up their feeling of self. They have to defend themselves from anyone who threatens to destroy what they think is normal. The families fall into patterns that are considered dysfunctional. Families are supposed to protect and provide support for the children. The family setting is intended to be a conducive environment for the development of the children into their roles; Instead, they fail to develop in the predicted child development stages (Dayton, 2016). In the case of this family, the teenager has taken the role of protecting her younger brother a role that is ordinarily that of her parents; the younger child on the other hand is unable to follow the expected pattern of child development.
The model of care, in this case, is to help every member of the family take up their roles. The first step is to help him recognize the damage he has done to his family and to help him overcome his shame and guilt that will come with this realization; assisting him to channel it into a recovery process (Dumaret, Constantin-Kuntz, & Titran, 2009). The next step is to convince the father to go into rehabilitation to kick his addiction to alcohol. The addiction has led to most of the problems in the family functions. He also has to take up anger management classes to deal with his violent tendencies. However, he must do this out of his volition by recognizing the damage he is doing to his family. The family needs to undergo individual therapy as well as family therapy to help them regain their health as a family. They have to work together to improve their communication and relationship as a family. The parents have to learn to relate to their children and adapt to their new roles and duties as protectors of the family. The father has to know that it is his obligation to take care of and provide for his family, he should take pride in this responsibility.
The mother’s individual therapy will entail bringing her out of her shell of intimidation and victim mentality. She has to learn to stand up for her children and herself. She has to learn to be more aggressive in her quest to do the right thing for her family. During the family therapy session, she will establish her role in the family as the guardian and nurturer. The purpose of the treatment will be to help her regain respect among her children.
In addition to the family and individual therapy, the spouses will undergo marital counseling. The duty of the family therapist is to help them reestablish their relationship and roles as husband and wife through forgiveness and acceptance. They need to work out the issues in their marriage as well as work on restoring their roles where they are equals rather than having roles of victim and intimidator. Eliminating the fear and violence in the marriage is the first step towards establishing a healthy family (Dumaret, Constantin-Kuntz, & Titran, 2009). This will be the hardest part to accomplish since the roles are deeply embedded within the relationship, the husband has to strive to prove that he is rid of his violent tendencies. The wife also has to establish herself as an equal and force her husband to consider her as equal.
The individual therapy for the teenager is to help her reestablish her role as an adolescent. Instead of taking care of her brother she should learn how to take care of herself and learn to be independent. Teenage is a crucial stage in both psychological and physiological development; once the trauma caused by addiction and violence have been eliminated, then the teenager can continue to develop normally. There is a possibility of reducing long-term side effects of trauma resulting from the parental addiction and violence. The family therapy will help the teenage eliminate the fear and anxiety of her parents and especially her father. It will also help her reestablish her role in the family as a child rather than as a protector when will be protected instead by her parents. It should restore her faith and belief in her parents as her guardians. The therapy will also be aimed at helping her develop social skills and help her normally relate with her classmates and other children her age. It will help her deal with her depression and suicidal tendencies. It is also recommended that she take medication to help with her depression. The medication in conjunction with therapy should help her cope both at school and the home setting.
Therapy for the younger son will help her become accustomed to a childhood love and parental affection. Children have an uncanny ability to internalize the negative energy from the family wrangles both psychologically and physiologically. The family tension has affected the child’ immune defenses, making him susceptible to disease in addition to being socially underdeveloped. It will also help him return to his normal development cause. The individual therapy will be geared towards developing skills that are in line with his age. The individual therapy will be aimed at helping him develop social skills needed to interact with other children. It will be aimed at helping him learn to interact with other adults without fear of being yelled at for his actions. The goal is to help him gain self-confidence and self-worth. His care plan will also include the use of pharmaceuticals to improve his boost his immunity. The objective of the family therapy will be to help him repair his neural wiring to help rebuild his immune system.
Family therapy has shown to be an effective method when dealing with family matters. It is also an effective way when helping clients who are dealing with issues of addiction; it is also effective when dealing with families where there is evidence of violence in the family. Engaging the family in helping the addict cope and recover is an important part of helping the family towards recovery. Experts recommend that the family should be involved in the recovery process since addiction affects the whole family. It is also essential for the addict to feel accepted and appreciated by his family while he goes through the recovery process. By helping the father recover and supporting him through his addiction and anger management issues, then the recovery process will be much easier on the whole family (Norström, & Pape, 2010). In addition, helping him the family will be going through their recovery process; they will recover together as a family who will foster their family cohesion in addition to improving their family loyalty and recovering their synchrony. This will help every family member enhance their individuality and their sense of self within the household setting.
The Bowen family theory establishes that the family is best understood by conceptualizing the family as a complex, compelling and changing selection of parts, subsystems and family members (Hammond, Cheney & Pearsey, 2016). It recognizes the family as an emotional unit where the complex interactions affected the individual’s wellbeing. The application of this approach views treatment as wholesome. It seeks to treat the patient’s whole family rather than the particular patient with the problem, in this case, the father. In this case, the approach, trying to mend the relationship between the parents as spouses and repair their relationship with their children (Kerr, 2000)
Before the implementation of the recovery plan, it is recommended that a social worker evaluates the living conditions of the family to determine the fitness of the home to nurture the children. This is a crucial step in determining whether there is a need to remove the children are in any danger and whether they should remain in their home. The evaluation will determine whether the father poses any risk if he continues to live under the same roof while he recovers from his addiction. The social worker will also determine whether the economic status of the home is sufficient to cater for the family’s needs. The approach is holistic in its application in that the care provider will also help the mother find her untapped skills which she may use to gain financial independence from her husband. It will help her take care of her family if her husband is incapacitated. It will also contribute to her sense of helplessness; it will help her regain her confidence and self-worth and help her reassert herself as an equal partner in her marriage.
The techniques used in this interview involved interviewing the whole family at the same time where every family member was required to share their thoughts and grievances about their family situation. At the end of the interview, little had been learned about the family issues and how deeply they were rooted. Every family member looked to the father for permission to speak and for his approval for the things they said. It showed the extent of his dominance over them, but achieved little in trying to help them recognize the problem in their family dynamic. Although the main agenda was to help the family recover from the issues caused by addiction and violence.
In subsequent interviews, the family was open once the father had said the they were free to point out his mistakes and their recommendations for improvement of his behavior. He only accepted to do this after his individual therapy. The interview could have been improved if the interview had taken place in their house setting where they are familiar with their environment. It would have been enhanced by dealing with each family member separately first before the family session. This would have helped each them, become acquainted with the caregiver as well as the idea of dealing with the issues affecting their family. Approaching the family members separately eliminates the chance that any of them feels ambushed if issues are raised with their behavior. In this case, the counselor should deal with the father first since his behavior seems to be the cause of all the tensions within the family. Working with the father before the session would have helped him identify the need for therapy, rehabilitation and anger management classes (Norström, & Pape, 2010). In addition to this, it would have helped him show a noticeable change in behavior at home. Thus, when dealing with a similar case in the future, the interview techniques used should be different.
The family is the basic unit of the society. Its well-being translates into the wellbeing of the community. Addiction and violence from any spouse with the household affects the whole family and especially child development. Family tensions influence the psychological development of the children and their physical and physiological development. The family systems theory suggests that emotional cohesion within the household is a necessity for every family to have a healthy psychological development (Kerr, 2000).
.
References
Dayton, T. (2016). The Set Up Living With Addiction. Retrieved 17 April 2016, from http://www.nacoa.org/pdfs/The%20Set%20Up%20for%20Social%20Work%20Curriculum.pdf
Dumaret, A., Constantin-Kuntz, M., & Titran, M. (2009). Early Intervention in Poor Families Confronted Early Intervention in Poor Families Confronted With Alcohol Abuse and Violence: Impact on Families' Social Integration and Parenting. Families In Society: The Journal Of Contemporary Social Services, 90(1), 11-17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1606/1044-3894.3840
Hammond, R., Cheney, P., & Pearsey, R. (2016). Sociology Of The Family : 03 Sociological Theories Of The Family. Freesociologybooks.com. Retrieved 17 April, 2016, from http://freesociologybooks.com/Sociology_Of_The_Family/03_Sociological_Theories_Of_The_Family.php
Kerr, Michael E. 2000 “One Family’s Story: A Primer on Bowen Theory.” The Bowen Center for the Study of the Family. http://www.thebowencenter.org.
Norström, T., & Pape, H. (2010). Alcohol, suppressed anger and violence. Addiction, 105(9), 1580-1586. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2010.02997.x
