The Structure of the family and its functions

The Structure of the family and its functions

This model assists health care providers in addressing the challenges that families face and help give interventions on how to handle the problems. This tool helps the nurses typically in treating the family system as a whole or as a part of the societal Structure and as an interaction system (Stanhope and Lancaster 2008). This paperwork focusses on a family that consists of a stepfather, mother and an adopted daughter.

The name of the family, address and their phone numbers are confidential hence not mentioned in this work to protect the identity of the family. The mother madam, Carol, who is 54 years old, the father Kenneth, who is 65 years of age and the ten-year-old daughter by the name Celine all live in this home. The family type is of a low middle-class income; the family consists of three the father, mother and the daughter. Carol and Kenneth have been married just for three years now. They speak the English language, and Carol has got no ethnic historical background because she is also a product of adoption. Carol adopted her daughter Celine while in another marriage relationship whom they took from the day she was born. The family practices Christianity as their religion.

The mother (Carol) is a staunch believer who even takes part actively in church activities every Sunday and during holidays such as the Good Friday and Easter. They live in their own home approximately 30 years old. The apartment is owned by Carol, who is also the breadwinner of the family from her clerical job, in a nearby health institution. Dressing code and style of operation clearly defines that they are from a low, middle-class household. Most of the responsibilities, are managed and chartered for by Carol, and there is a spirit of unity in the family through the sharing of meals during breakfast and dinner. The couples do not take cigarettes neither do they drink alcohol, thereby very healthy and only indicated to suffer from a weight problem.

Carol weighs 260Ibs while Kenneth weighs 240 all their body weights are considered to be obese according to the United States Department of Health and Human Services (2010). Celine, who weighs 95Ibs is very healthy as set by the United States Department of Health and Services (2010). The couples believe to be taking good diets of food daily and have tried to lower their weights, but to no success, they have got no enough time to carry out their exercises.

The Structure of the family and its functions

While interviewing the family, I noted a difference in style of communication between the couples where Carol was answering most of the questions by herself, and Kenneth only added when he felt that some of the information was not enough. I noticed that the daughter also behaved and interacted well with the stepfather there was no clear sign of disobedience. Carol is the sole decision-maker in the family, and they have no joint bank account; each one of them manages their minds differently. In carrying out the family responsibilities such as laundry and cooking, they help each other while other tasks such as mowing the grass a solely Kenneth’s role. The family portrays a good socialization structure, the affection of the family demonstrated on how they address each other with beautiful names such as honey sweetheart and phrases like “I love you sweetie” and their unity in taking care of their daughter Celine.

The family believes in productive healthcare functions, and even go for health checkups and believe in healthy diets, but they do not practice routine activities such as exercise. Currently, Carol is diagnosed with depression while Kenneth diagnosed with hypertension. Their daughter Celine has developed stomach pains, and the physician believes that it can be linked to stress concerning her adoption and her current relationship with her boyfriend.

Interventions in addressing health problems

Family stress, as a result of Celine’s illness Carol has developed the emotional sickness in this case, stress leading to depression both couples are worried about their daughter. In an attempt to deal with Celine’s disease, the couple went ahead to get advice from medical and psychological experts and were advised to help her in coping up with the stepfather and her new boyfriend. Celine is stressed with the home bills while Kenneth stressed by not giving adequate support as the head of the family.

Family nursing and diagnosing

Based on the information I collected from the family about the Friedman Family Assessment, I found some techniques that can be used to help address the family problems. The first was to help improve family nutrition and improving activities that can help promote good health. The main problem was imbalanced diet, psychosocial factors and economic issues. This evident due to lack of exercise, obesity, and eating out more than they cook while at home. The second is an interruption of family processes, Carol as result of a reduction in working hours has a problem in providing for family needs, Kenneth not contributing towards family bills and loss of job by ex-husband thereby receiving no child support from him.

In general, a family is an essential factor in determining how human beings relate to their relatives it will help identify the problem that every individual face in the family and this is due to excellent communication and affection in the family.