Family Health Assessment Family Overview the Lial

Family Health Assessment

Family Overview

The Lial Family is composed of three individuals. Christy, the mother, is 38 years old, and she has twin daughters, Imani and Nia, who are both currently eight years old. They live alone together in an apartment in Mexico, while the girl's father, Dean, lives in New York. Dean is actively involved in their lives, providing monthly financial support and often communicates with his daughters, but does not maintain a primary relationship with Christy. Dean is married and he and his wife have a newborn son. Christy and Dean maintain an amicable relationship and communicate openly about the girl's needs. Grandparents on both sides are involved with the family and the girls have regular visits with all parties, despite the fact that they currently live in Mexico and their relatives are in Toronto and Trinidad. The family is very spread out, but the daughters report positive connections with all of their relatives.

Imani and Nia attend school daily and are enrolled in a variety of fitness and academic activities. Their mother, Christy, works in a local company doing internet related work, and her job is flexible enough to meet the needs of her daughters.

The family has some financial stressors, as the local economy has suffered, and at times Christy is not paid on deadline. They meet all of their physical and material needs and enjoy basic activities such as going to parks, having play dates, eating in restaurants, and purchasing new toys or games. Overall they live a fairly spartan lifestyle in a very basic apartment, but all of their needs are met, and none of them displays any serious distress or concern about their home life.

This family is extremely athletic. All of them dance and have very high levels of flexibility and endurance. The daughters practice dance and circus arts, and their mother also practices dance and completes high-intensity workouts on a regular basis. They commute within their city by bicycle and they eat very nutritious diets full of whole grains, protein, and produce.

The main stressor in this family system appears to be that Christy is often somewhat overwhelmed with the responsibilities of being a single parent. She is prone to anxiety and depression. At the same time she has taken great measures to seek support from counselors, self-help tools, her spiritual practices, and close friends. She is raising her daughters to understand that learning is a positive and primary focus in life, and as a result her daughters enjoy school and work extremely hard to learn new languages and arts to the best of their ability.

This is a close family that shares a lot of affection and positive regard for each other, and despite their economic stressors they function quite well as a family unit.

Summary of Health Findings

During our interview Christy expressed that she feels her family's greatest strengths lie in their spirituality and physical activities. Despite a variety of hardships they all enjoy working on their spiritual pursuits, and they are all talented dancers and performers, so when they are active they tend to feel better about any stress that occurs.

This family's nutrition is excellent. Christy cares deeply about how they eat and ensures that the family has a balanced diet that they all enjoy. They enjoy eating, but they eat very few junk foods or unhealthy items.

One issue that has occurred is that due to local public heath issues with foods and sanitation the family has contracted repeated issues with urinary tract infections and gastrointestinal infections. Christy has addressed these issues very proactively by having the family undergo antibiotic treatments and all of them practice excellent hygiene.

Wellness Diagnosis

The nursing wellness diagnosis for this family includes three main areas: Readiness for Enhanced Nutritional Metabolic Pattern, Readiness for Enhanced Activity -- Exercise Pattern, and Readiness for Enhanced Relationships.

The family displays a clear readiness to care for and engage in positive and healthy nutritional practices. They eat well and the children seem to love nutritious foods and don't tend to crave or seek unhealthy junk foods or sugar. They are all physically healthy, and it is clear that their food choices are directly connected to this physical health.

The family also displays an Readiness for Enhanced Activity and Exercise. They are very active and athletic and enjoy dance, gymnastics, and cardiovascular exercise. They enjoy commuting throughout the cit by bicycle, and don't report any physical issues or fatigue. The children are very active and display a healthy level of activity and physical endurance. A part of the family's strength is that they engage in exercise to help manage stress and to maintain their sense of enjoyment and fun.

The Lial family also displays an Enhanced Readiness for Relationships. They are very open communicators, expressing affection, concern, and even frustration very openly. Christy and her children are able to communicate and make viable plans and agreements with each other regarding how they will interact and take care of household responsibilities. They also display very effective relationship skills with other people outside of their direct household, including Dean, the children's father, and various aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. Overall the family functions quite well and does not qualify for any nursing wellness diagnosis of concern.