Family Health Assessment The actions and lifestyle choices of family members can have a dramatic impact on everyone. This is because each person will influence the others and the decisions they make. These variables will affect their underlying levels of health and ability to deal with various challenges in their lives. A good example of this can be seen with insights from James (2004) who said, "There was a general perception that specific habits means families are giving up part of their cultural heritage and trying to conform to the dominant culture. Friends and relatives usually are not supportive of these changes. Barriers to these shifts include: no sense of urgency, the social and cultural symbolism of certain foods, the poor taste of choices, the expenses for embracing these transformation and lack of information. Segments of the population that potentially could be motivated include women, men with health problems, young adults, the elderly and those diagnosed with a severe, life-threatening disease." (James, 2004) These insights are showing how family members will often inhibit each other from making healthy and productive choices until they are forced to address them in life threatening situations.

To fully understand what is happening requires interviewing a family and specific factors which impact their behaviors. These objectives will be accomplished by providing brief summarizations of the findings from the functional health patterns and identifying two or more wellness programs. Together, these different elements will offer insights about the assessment of the family and how lifestyle choices are influencing them.

Brief Summarization of the Findings for each Functional Health Pattern for your Family

The Jones family has four children. The mother and father are Jack and Pam. They have been married for 23 years and use specific patterns which will influence their ability to deal with a variety of situations. In general, they embrace more conservative values. This means that their attitudes towards health and nutrition are based upon eating fatty foods and sugary snacks. They generally go to sleep and arise at the same time every single day.

Their ability to eliminate any issues; focuses on behaviors which they perceive to go against these social norms. However, in many cases, they either fail to follow through or will ignore what is really happening. They do very little physical activities and often hide behind this warped sense of reality. For example, Cindy is one of the children and she is 100 pounds overweight. Jack has tried to encourage her to lose weight. However, the problem is that she refuses to do so and will make it look like she is trying. When in reality, she eats all the time and does very little physical exercise.

From a cognitive perspective, the parents allow their children to have this kind of dysfunctional behavior. This is because they have a perception that they can do nothing wrong and fail to look at the reality of what is really happening. The combination of these factors lead to the kids having an unrealistic perception of themselves and who are they are in the world. This leads to bouts of depression and low self-esteem.

Their role relationship is confused, with the parents wanting to help the kids and they continue to treat them like they are children. However, two of their kids are in college and the others are in high school. This makes them unable to evolve and adapt with the different challenges in their lives. At the same time, sexuality is often frustrating for the children with them wanting to have intimate relationships. Yet, the parents feel they must receive permission to do so.

To cope, everyone puts on facade like they are living a lifestyle which is supportive of the ideals of their parents. However, beneath the surface, these challenges will lead to even larger issues in the future. This is problematic, as it can hurt their capacity to feel as if they have control of their lives. These issues are hurting the entire family's mental and physical well being. ("J. R. Weber's Nurses' Handbook of Health Assessment," 2010)

Identify Two or More Wellness and Family Nursing Diagnoses

To address these challenges, the entire Jones family needs to discuss issues...

This means looking at the root causes and identifying how specific behaviors and lifestyle choices are compounding many problems. These objectives are achieved by focusing on several wellness programs to include: health seeking behavior and cognitive patterns. The combination of these solutions will enhance their ability to analyze key issues and introduce tools for more effectively dealing with them. ("J. R. Weber's Nurses' Handbook of Health Assessment," 2010)
Health Seeking Behaviors

Health seeking behaviors is examining those factors which are leading to the way the kids react towards their parents and the relationship they have with others. This is in response to various challenges which are impacting how the children develop. The most notable include: altered development and growth. Altered growth development is illustrating how the kids will live lifestyles which border on delusional. This occurs with Jack and Pam expecting their children to behave a certain way. Yet, they do not and will hide this from their parents. For example, Henry is their youngest son and he is very rebellious towards them. To deal with these issues, Jack will try to punish him and prevent him from going out with his friends. At night, Henry will sneak out of the house and engage in promiscuous sexual activities and drinking. This is troubling, as it is showing how these expectations and Jack trying to force them on him, is leading to anti-social behavior. ("J. R. Weber's Nurses' Handbook of Health Assessment," 2010)

Cognitive Patterns

Cognitive patterns are looking at the way the thought process is disrupted by the current situation with the family. The wellness diagnosis which is utilized is readiness enhanced cognition. In this case, there is a disturbed thought process in the way the parents expect their children to behave. For instance, the two older daughters Debbie and Susan are in college and majoring in subjects their parents suggested. However, they do not want to study these subjects and feel as if they are being pressured to excel academically. To live up to these expectations, they often lie to their parents about what is going on with their lives. This is problematic, as it creates dysfunction from failing to understand what is happening. ("J. R. Weber's Nurses' Handbook of Health Assessment," 2010)

These issues are related, as they are contributing to the disconnect, the family members have with each other. To address them, the healthcare professional can encourage health seeking behaviors and changing everyone's cognitive patterns for them to live more empowering lives. This means discussing these challenges objectively and then introducing solutions that deal with those related to each person. This is the point; they can begin living more empowering lives and have a sense of control of their situation. ("J. R. Weber's Nurses' Handbook of Health Assessment," 2010)

Conclusion

Clearly, the Jones family is facing challenges with the way the parents interact with their kids. This is leading to disempowering behaviors from expecting them to be something they are not. Encouraging healthy behaviors and changing their cognitive patterns will enable everyone to express themselves more and take greater amounts of personal responsibility. Once this happens, is the point communication will improve and they can live empowering lives in the process.

References

J.R. Weber's Nurses' Handbook of Health Assessment. (2010). Web Archive. Retrieved from: http://web.archive.org/web/20120526135152/http://jxzy.smu.edu.cn/jkpg/UploadFiles/file/TF_06928152357_nursing%20diagnoses%20grouped%20by%20functional%20health%20patterns.pdf

James, D. (2004). Factors influencing Food Choices, Dietary Intake and Attitudes. Ethnicity and Health, 9 (4), 349-367.

Family focused Questions

1. Values, health perceptions

a. What kind of healthy activities are you engaged in?

b. How do you feel this impacts you well being?

c. How often are you involved with these activities?

2. Nutrition

a. What kinds of food choices do you make?

b. How is influencing your views about yourself?

c. Is there…