Family Assessment and Family

Genogram Project

The author of this report has been charged with doing a family assessment project. The largest part of this report shall be the genogram and ecogram. The personal version of these two diagrams as authored and put together by the author of this report are shown in the appendix. There will be some additional supporting and complementary information as well. This will include the Calgary Family Assessment Model (CFAM) and the Calgary Family Intervention Model. Both of those models will be discussed and reviewed in this report. Also worthy of mention will be the stages of the family life cycle. The rest of the report will be important information about the family members identified in the genogram. This information will include three generations of information, each family member being identified, the family relationship involved, the current age of the person (or age at death), the martial/relationship status of the person, the sex/sexual orientation of the person, the occupation of the person, the health status of the person, the health history of the person and interactional patterns that exist between the family members. While there are some health and marital continuity issues with the family in question for this report, the family does quite well despite the adversity and challenges that exist, in all their forms.

Literature Review

Calgary Family Assessment Model

The Calgary Family Assessment Model (CFAM) is rather famous and ubiquitous. As one might expect given the other information and things covered in this paper, the model is all about cataloging and making diagrams out of the family, its history and what it has going on from an social and medical standpoint. As explained by Wright and Leahy, the Calgary Family Intervention Model is an extension of the CFAM. Beyond that, there are many in the medical and similar fields that assert that the changing climate of healthcare practice and delivery has necessitated shorter hospital stays and more support from family members. Unfortunately, not all people have the luxury of having a good family or similar support network. Even so, that is the direction that the medical and broader community is clearly heading. Regardless, there are three dimensions to the framework being discussed, those being structural, developmental and functional. There is the use of a genogram, much like the one completed for this assignment, as well as an ecogram, which was also done. This is the "structural" part of the assessment. This is the "heart" of the assessment as it is being completed. The different parts and pieces of this assessment including power, roles, beliefs, alliances and coalitions. Nurses play a part in all of this, of course, in that they must learn how to engage, assess, intervene and then terminate with families as the timing allows for or demands it. Indeed, those are the four stages of the family assessment. A key linchpin of the entire process is an interview with the family. If done effectively, this can be done in fifteen minutes or less. In a nutshell, the model is about getting the required information but doing so in as little time possible while still being effective and to the point (Wright & Leahy, 2012).

To drill down a little more, there are some important parts of the Calgary model that cannot be ignored. First off, the general makeup and structure of the family has to be as fully known as possible. This includes traits and attributes such as race, ethnicity, country of origin, culture of origin, and the overall makeup of both the short-range and long-range family network in place. In some cases, there is not much to work with as some people become isolated for one reason or another. However, most people have at least a short-term safety net that they rely on or they at least know who they are related to and what health or other struggles they encountered. Other things that can matter a little to a great deal include income, social class, the part of town the people involved lived in, their genetic history in terms of health conditions (e.g. diabetes) and so forth. As noted by the assignment parameters, there are two basic parts of the developmental dimensions of the family and that would be the stages of the family life cycle and the tasks that each family member is responsible for. Generally, one or both of the parents (usually the male in many cultures) takes on a strong leadership role while the younger people (adults or not) are at a lesser status. There are some situations and environments where this normal order of things is greatly different and altered. For example, a single mother may be a drunk or a perpetual dater and the oldest child might be left to care for a younger sibling or two. Another example is a gay couple that may have the same count and orientation of gender roles but their second class status with so many people will make this tumultuous to say the least. Regardless, the stages of the family life cycle are basically the same in most situations. When it comes to standard nuclear families, there are basically three stages. In order, they are young adults leaving home, joining of families through marriage and families with young children. Eventually, the third stage would include people taking on parenting and grand-parenting roles. This normal process can become very abnormal. One of the children in the genogram for this family had cancer at a young age and there was very much a striving to return to normal, which is also addressed via the Calgary models (West, Bell, Woodgate, & Moules, 2015).

As for the Calgary Family Intervention Model (CFIM), there are three stages and dimensions to look at. Of course, they are cognitive, affective and behavioral. To define what the CFIM is in simple terms, it is the intersection of a particular domain (one of the three just mentioned) when it comes to family functioning and a specific intervention that is offered by a family care professional such as a therapist. Indeed, if a therapist proposed cognitive behavioral therapy for one or more members of a family, that would be a cognitive dimension item in many cases (Sveinbjarnardottir, Svavarsdottir, & Wright, 2013). However, therapies that are meant to change the way a person acts would be more behavioral in nature. Examples of interventions, of which there are many, would include talking about an experience with an illness, the encouragement of resting and respite, and the asking of intervention-related questions that are to be present. CFIM is in many ways presented as a way that professionals can conceptualize and visualize change. The author of this report found sources, the one cited among them, that specifically use the CFIM to deal with diabetes and that is something that the family in this report's genogram has had to specifically deal with (Konradsdottir & Svavarsdottir, 2011).

Information of People Nuclear Family of Genogram

Age: 31

Marital/relationship: Divorced w/ 3 kids (mother not in picture)

Sex/sexual orientation: Heterosexual