FAMILY HEALTH ASSESSMENT
Open-ended family-focused questions for each of the eleven health patterns below:
1) Values, Health Perception
What are some of your values that control the way you perceive health care?
Most people consider health as their first priority. Why do you consider yourself as a part of that group?
Different people have different perceptions regarding health. What are some of your perceptions towards health?
2) Nutrition
Nutrition has been on the headlines as far as health care is concerned. What does the term nutrition mean?
From your experience in regard to Nutrition, why do you consider it as a great step to health care?
What are some of the challenges encountered as far as up keeping nutrition is concerned?[unique_solution]
3) Sleep/Rest
Having enough sleep or rest has been classified under the category of measures which ensure a healthy living, why do you think it has been put under that category?
Different people have different opinions in regard to the duration of sleeping or resting which can be seen as enough, which is the standard sleeping or resting time?
According to the standard resting or sleeping time, do you consider yourself under the category of enough sleep/rest or not and why?
4) Elimination
Elimination process is one of the ways of determining whether a person is healthy or not and which has not been understood by many people, according to you what is Elimination?
Urinating is one of the ways through which the body of a human being achieves Elimination; can you give some other two ways?
For a person to be considered healthy, what are some of the standards must he achieve in regard to elimination process?
5) Activity/Exercise
Exercising has been classified under the category of the ways of facilitating a healthy living, what are some of your daily activities which indicate that you do exercises?
Which is the main health problem currently on the headlines as a result of reluctance as far as body exercising is concerned?
How does exercising help in ensuring a healthy living?
6) Cognitive
According to psychology, healthy people are considered to be cognitively active. From this perception, do you consider yourself healthy or not and why?
What are some of the behaviors which show that you are a cognitive person?
Being cognitive is measured in two ways; one of those ways is the acquisition of knowledge. Which is the other way?
7) Sensory-Perception
Sensory perception is used as a standard of measuring human health status, what does it mean?
What are the four senses incorporated in sensory perception?
According to the definition of sensory perception as it concerns health, can you consider yourself healthy or not and why?
8) Self-Perception
Can you consider your family as healthy or not and why?
What are some of the practices which make you consider yourself and the rest of the family members as healthy?
What are some of the challenges you face in your attempts to ensuring healthy living for yourself and your family at large.
9) Role Relationship
Current family relationships have been pointed out as root causes of certain diseases like high blood pressure, what is your opinion on the conclusion?
What are some of the family issues which you considered as dangerous for your health and the health of other family members?
What are some of the roles played by the current relationships as far as healthy status of the partners is concerned?
10) Sexuality
Sexuality is among the factors determining the health status of a person, what does sexuality mean?
What are some of the ways through which sexuality determines the health status of a person?
Can you give some incidences where sexuality has played a big role in determining the health status of a person?
11) Coping
One of the ways of dealing with stress is by learning how to cope with it, so what does coping mean?
What are some of negative health impacts of stress?
Can you give some two instances where coping has helped you deal with a stressful situation?
In 800-1,000 words, summarize the findings for each functional health pattern for the family you have selected.
From the interview which was basically based on the eleven functional health patterns; Values & Health Perception, Nutrition, Sleep/Rest, Elimination, Activity/Exercise, Cognitive, Sensory-Perception, Self-Perception, Role Relationship, Sexuality and Coping, each pattern had its own distinct responses from Martin, a Turin family representative whom I had a chance to interact with.
In regard to Values and Health perception of the family, my main aim during the interview was to know more about the Values and Health perceptions of the family which play a role in ensuring that the family health is upheld. From the responses I got from Martin, it was clearly evident that health matters are given the first priority in the family. According to Martin the family is always ready to anything to ensure that its members have good health. This was supported by his explanation on how the family is committed to ensure that the young children get the necessary vaccines and its urgency of responding to outbreaks by rushing the young ones for immunizations. As an addition to that, I learnt that the family is committed to taking medical cover for all the members whenever they reach the age of 18 years.
Nutrition was the second emphasis of the family. The statistics of malnutrition cases within the society where the family existed indicated that children were highly affected by malnutrition diseases. However, Martin confirmed that his family has never witnessed any case of malnutrition from its young children. That was an indication that the family understood and upheld nutrition measures. Again, Martin confirmed the family’s emphasis on balanced diet by pointing out that despite of the family location on a semi-arid climatic conditions where accessing some of food stuffs to facilitate balanced diet, their efforts are always relentless to ensure that food stuffs like vegetables and fruits are included in the diet.
Although located at a semi-arid place where existence follows the rule of the jungle “survival for the fittest” and where many families consider having enough sleep and rest as an easiest way of remaining poor, the case of Turin family as implied by Martin was totally different. Even the workers were allowed to sleep and rest for at least 8 hours contrary to other families where workers were taken as slaves and could hardly get time to sleep or rest. This was a clear indication that the family valued the health of its members by allowing them to have enough sleep and rest.
Unlike other families where issues to do with elimination process of children is considered a normal occurrence, in Turin family such incidences were treated with necessary attention by taking children for health checkups as it was reported by Martin. This was an indication that the family was aware of the resultant health consequences as a result of abnormal elimination cases.
Most of the families in the locality perceived exposing children to long distance walks in search for water and other materials like firewood as punishment to children and could do what it takes to save their children from walking long distances and carrying heavy loads on their backs. However, with the case of Turin family that was not the case despite of the family’s ability to afford that luxurious life for its children. The family considered it as a way of exposing the children to body exercises and which could save them from diseases like obesity and others.
All the children from the family who showed abnormal behaviors as far as cognition, sensory perception and self-perception could be taken for health checkups at their tender or early ages as this was considered as a health problem which could lead to more harm if left to build up. Compared to many families, this was completely different because it was considered as a process of growth. Exemplifying its consciousness towards some of these individual trends of children in their process of growth was an indication of the family’s attention and high priority on health matters in all aspects.
According to Martin, Turin family advocated for mutual agreements under third parties whenever disputes erupted among family members be it spouses or relatives. This was adopted after realizing that most of the immature deaths among its neighbors were facilitated by high blood pressure and whose root cause was conflicts within the families. So, as a family giving health a higher priority, it has been advocating for peaceful conflict resolution among its members to avoid cases like those of high blood pressure and others.
Sexuality has also been a major concern especially in regard to its female children approaching the adolescent age. Contrary to many other families who tend to ignore some of the abnormal behaviors among children at this age, Martin pointed out that any of their adolescent children displaying abnormality behaviors are taken for medical checkups to ensure that they are treated to prevent those signs from escalating.
Lastly, the family has implemented guidance and counselling programme which takes place after every two months among all the members and which equips both the parents and children with the necessary knowledge and skills on how to deal with different life difficulties and enable them cope with stressful cases. Implementation of this program is a clear evidence that the family values health of its members.
From the family assessment which I based on Turin family and facilitated by Martin who is a member of the family, I realized that there are different problems hindering the families from attaining their wellness goals. Among them I identified two major ones and which are, lack of information and financial constraints which render families unable to afford some of the costs which come in line with attaining wellness goals.