Family Assessment #II
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date
Introduction
According to the World Health Organization, health is a state of total wellbeing (mental, physical, and spiritual) and not mere absence of illness. When focusing on family health, numerous factors contribute to the well-being of a particular family or individual. The factors include family social and economic status, social norms/attitudes and social class, educational status, social support system, and mass media (Kelley, 2020). Identification of these factors helps develop better strategies to promote good health. This health promotion would include going for check-ups and screenings based on risk factors. Family health assessments help identify all these problems and make it easy to create a health promotion plan. Evaluation of the SDOH facing a family could help identify the right model and plan to help improve their wellbeing, especially by developing a family-centred health promotion plan.
Social determinants of health influence or impact the well-being of an individual, a family or community. According to the week 2 assessment, one of the factors affecting the JMs family is in the middle social class. This means that the family does not lack their necessities like good nutrition and housing. They are also African Americans who try their level best to maintain good social relations with those surrounding them but the fact that they are black in an American state could be a factor of discrimination by other races. Other factors that could affect their health are access to health care services and the availability of recreational and leisure-time activities.
The SDOH impacting JMs family could cause positive or negative implications for their well-being. Their living standards are not as high as their income is not high. This means that they could lack some needs due to lack of enough resources which could result in physical or mental strain. Their socio-economic class could increase their risk of child and maternal mortality. Facing discrimination for being black could affect their health as people facing discrimination lack quality medical services. The presence of gyms and yoga facilities is a factor that could greatly benefit the family’s health. This family is hence facing numerous SDOH, most of which have a negative influence on their health and require to be addressed. These factors are prevalent for this family because of the racial discrimination in the country.
Health screenings based on age are appropriate even if an individual feels healthy. This helps identify the presence of medical issues with no symptoms. It also helps evaluate the risk of future health issues. Screening also encourages living healthy lifestyles and updating vaccinations. It is also a good way of getting to know a care provider whom you could call in case of illness. JM is 44 and should go for blood pressure screening at least once every 2 years, cholesterol screening every 5 years, diabetes every 3 years, dental examination at least once every year, and an eye examination every 2-4 years ("Health screenings for men ages 40 to 64: MedlinePlus medical encyclopedia," n.d.). His wife should also go for blood pressure screening, regular cholesterol screening especially due to her weight gain, diabetes screening because her weight is a risk factor, dental and eye exams, infectious disease screening if she is sexually active, screening for cervical and breast cancer and a physical exam to check for depression ("Health screenings for women ages 18 to 39: MedlinePlus medical encyclopedia," n.d.). Their 10-year-old son should visit a paediatrician with his parents for blood pressure screening, height and weight examination, cholesterol and tuberculosis screening as he is used to playing out with other children, and immunizations such as influenza vaccine ("Annual health screenings for children ages 7-10," n.d.).
The two prevailing health models are the biomedical model and the Biopsychosocial model. This family’s situation would require the application of the Biopsychosocial Model. The approach takes social, biological, and psychological factors into account (George Taukeni, 2019). It also views the multiple causes of the underlying condition. The client’s lifestyle is given weight as it could be the cause of their condition. Dealing with the situation involves the whole person which is their mind, body, and themes (George Taukeni, 2019). It also tries to determine whether the situation is a result of an illness. Using this model would help identify if JMs weight gain is a result of stress after the miscarriage or if it is due to her lifestyle changes.
Using the model could help promote a family-centred care strategy. Verbal communication with JMs family could help assess their strengths. After writing the characters that make the family able to deal with problems, one would need to place an “S” for the achieved strengths and a “G” where more growth is needed. After the evaluation, one would need to give them feedback and encourage virtual communication for more dialogue to identify their values and preferences. Later, the one conducting the plan would require to help the family in developing positive attitudes and trust. This could be a good start for JM s wife whose self-esteem seems low. Promoting optimal support would also help them recover from the miscarriage issue.
Conclusion
In conclusion, good health will only be achieved upon identification of the contributing factors. The factors that influence people’s health are termed as social determinants of health and could either affect them positively or negatively. Some of the factors affecting JMs family, for example, include race, socio-economic status, social class and other positive factors including the presence of community recreational facilities (Kelley, 2020). Proper lifestyle practices such as going for age-based screenings helps promote good health by identifying the possibility of future medical issues or underlying health issues. Application of health models upon identification of a health issue helps come up with a treatment plan.
References
Annual Health Screenings for Children Ages 7-10. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://harbinclinic.com/annual-health-screenings-children-ages-7-10
George Taukeni, S. (2019). Introductory Chapter: Bio-Psychosocial Model of Health. Psychology of Health - Biopsychosocial Approach. doi:10.5772/intechopen.85024
Health Screenings for Men Ages 40 to 64: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007465.htm
Health Screenings for Women Ages 18 to 39: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007462.htm
Kelley, A. (2020). An Overview of Public Health Evaluation and the Social Determinants of Health. Public Health Evaluation and the Social Determinants of Health, 1-18. doi:10.4324/9781003047810-1
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