Family Health Assessment

Social Determinants of Health that affect the family include; the issue whereby the son with obesity may not have been in his right mind, which is characterized by his being depressed for two years. The son with diabetes had challenges with his health socially because of his smoking habit caused by stress and involuntary habit training. The mother’s back pain was caused by her reluctance to follow doctor’s orders on bed rest. She was a workaholic and now suffers every day due to her zeal to get back to work when she should have taken time to rest. These factors are prevalent for this family because they are normal people and have the usual challenges that people face in society. The mother’s desire to get back to work soon after delivering her child is common for women who want to be seen as being in a position to work in the corporate sector and also maintain their positions as mothers. The son with diabetes became addicted to smoking his cigarettes which may have been caused by an array of factors. He may have started out as a social smoker when in the company of his friends, the gradually smoked when stressed and eventually could not stop himself from smoking. He may have only managed to stop smoking when his condition became worse. The son with obesity may have been pushed into a depression by social pressures of trying to fit into groups and among his peers (Bryant, Hess, & Bowen, 2015). He may have actually fit in but his lack of self-confidence led him to feel left out and that may have been a reason for his depression. All these factors socially trigger which makes them the social determinants of health that affect the family. 

The family health assessment gathered so far indicates that the family is generally healthy. However, there is a need for constant health screening to ensure that the rest of the family members stay clear of serious preventable health issues. They also need to be aware of any health issues they are exposed to as early as possible. Therefore, Jason and his siblings fall in the category where they need to get their cholesterol checks once every five years except for their brother dealing with obesity, who needs to get checked every year. They also all need to undergo full body skin checks, testicular examinations for the men and pelvic examination for the sisters. For the women, once in every three years, they have to undergo a pap smear. The mother, who is over the age of 40 years, should be taking a colonoscopy exam to clear her of exposure to colon cancer and a mammogram (Shimizu, Bouchard, & Mavriplis, 2016). For her case, because she has a back problem, it is important for her to work with a physiotherapist closely who will monitor and advise her on what kind of check-ups she needs to undergo. All these check-ups are necessary for monitoring the progress of the three family members with visible health challenges and keep the healthy ones in the know about their health status. 

The best health model that can be used to create a plan of action is the Health Belief Model. It is the best place for this activity because, it works on the perceptions of the individuals and cue to action with an end-goal of developing self-efficacy for the individual (Jones, Smith, & Llewellyn, 2014). This works best because two of the family members with health issues can manage them well with determination, changed perceptions and eventually become self-efficient. This model, however, needs the support of the family members to encourage healthy living. This can be done in stages where, first, the support of the family is offered to help cut damaging health habits for the brothers. This way, one will stop binge eating while the other one gets to stop smoking. The second step is to support the change of habit by constantly lauding them for beating their bad habits. In the case of a relapse, professional care should be sought rather than rebuking them for being weak, constant support and encouragement is important. Finally, the last stage of implementation is to always have any member of the family ready to accompany them on their medical appointments. Celebrating every news of improvement will also give the brothers more courage to seek better health for themselves. It is also important that the mother is supported throughout her sessions with her therapist because her success as a scholar can be attributed to her sacrifice earlier in her age. 

References

Bryant, P. H., Hess, A., & Bowen, P. G. (2015). Social Determinants of Health Related to Obesity. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 220-225.

Jones, C., Smith, H., & Llewellyn, C. (2014). Evaluating the effectiveness of health belief model interventions in improving adherence: a systematic review. NCBI, 253-269.

Shimizu, T., Bouchard, M., & Mavriplis, C. (2016). Update on age-appropriate preventive measures and screening for Canadian primary care providers. NCBI, 131-138.