Family Health Assessment

This assignment focuses on the social determinant of health and its impact on Mr. Daniels family. It discusses the health screening required for each family member and the strategies for promoting healthy living. The socio-ecological model is also discussed.

Family health assessment

Introduction
The society with which an individual interacts have significant impact on his/her
preferences and living style. It also impacts food habits and associated preferences.
Considering this fact, focus of the present assignment would be on social determinant of
health and the ways it impact Mr. Daniels family.
1] Considering the case of Mr. Daniels, the Social Determinant of health [SDOH] that
impacts the members of the family is healthy behaviors. This SDOH have major impact
on the health status of Daniels’s family is healthy behavior. To elaborate it further, it can
be observed apart from his two daughters, his wife, his mother along with he himself is
not having a good physical health and associated condition.
In this regards, healthy behavior can be defined as the incorporation of healthy habits like
consuming food at a proportionate rate and being associated with physical activities. As a
result of lack of its presence in Daniels’s family, he can be seen to be suffering from
Diabetes. His mother can also be seen to be effected by osteoarthritis and diabetes. On
the other hand, his wife can be seen to be suffering from depression. As a result of lack of
an active living style, these issues can be seen to be prevalent in their family. The reason
of prevalence of these factors in their family is lack of understanding, awareness and
education about the importance of active living style (Viner et al., 2012).
2] In case of Mr. Daniels’s health screening should include a blood pressure check,
cholesterol check along with fasting blood sugar levels. The reason of opting cholesterol
check and blood pressure check is due to the fact that, he leads a sedentary life and his
food consumption pattern is not healthy. Moreover, he also gets indulged in smoking.
This results in increasing the risk of high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Conducting
fasting blood sugar test would also help in keeping an eye on the sugar level and help in
checking it. CT scan would also be required to be conducted as he is a smoker and it
would help in understanding the condition of his lungs ("Recommended health screenings
for all life’s stages", 2019).
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In case of his wife who is displaying symptoms of depression health screening would
include MRI or CT scan of the brain. It would help in highlighting any serious illness
associated with her brain.
Electrocardiogram would be considered for diagnosing heart issues.
Electroencephalogram would be considered for recording electrical activity of the brain
("Tests Used to Diagnose Depression", 2019).
This would help in identifying clinical depression.
In case of his mother, bone density check would be conducted to identify her one
condition as she was suffering from osteoarthritis.
Apart from that, as she was suffering from dementia, CT scan of her brain, Positron
emission tomography would be conducted for getting a picture of brain activity
("Alzheimer's Disease & Related Dementias", 2018).
In case of his daughters, as they were unable to follow a healthy diet, height and weight
check and blood pressure check would be conducted.
3] In this case, the socio-ecological model may be taken into consideration. While
discussing about health and associated conditions, under this model, it is discussed
from the community level and individual level. Under this model, individual
factors along with environmental and community factors are taken into consideration.
Hence, the interaction of individual with his/her community gets considered under this
model. The reason of opting this model for Mr. Daniels’s family is due to the fact that,
with fast living style and changing food preferences within the community wherein the
availability of fast food has increased drastically, individuals tend to make wrong
decision (Townsend & Foster, 2013).
This is the case of Daniels family who tend to opt for fast foods like pizza, frequently that
result in conditions like diabetes. This makes socio-ecological model appropriate in their
case.
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4] For promoting them to opt for healthy living style, family centered health promotion
may be taken into consideration. The steps associated with it are:
 Engaging the Daniels family in understanding the risks associated with their
present habit of living.
 Help them identify the challenges they may face as a result of such choices in the
future.
 Followed by identification of the risks, the health care providers is needed to
collaborate with the family members to help them set goals that they are needed
to achieve for maintaining a healthy life.
 The final step is providing with interventions that is individualized in nature and
each member of Daniels family may have different preferences and goals that are
needed to be achieved (Militello, Kelly & Melnyk, 2012).
The strategies of communication that would be incorporated are visual, to help them
identify and visualize the risk associated with present living style. Verbal communication
would be used to keep them motivated to achieve individual goals. In situations where
they may lose their moral and confidence, non-verbal communication may be used.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be stated that, effective communication is an essential tool for motivating and
inculcating healthy habits.
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References
National institute of aging. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/alzheimers/symptoms
Militello, L. K., Kelly, S. A., & Melnyk, B. M. (2012). Systematic review of text‐
messaging interventions to promote healthy behaviors in pediatric and adolescent
populations: implications for clinical practice and research. Worldviews on
Evidence‐Based Nursing, 9(2), 66-77.
Recommended health screenings for all life’s stages. (2019). Retrieved from
https://www.beaumont.org/health-wellness/blogs/recommended-health-
screenings-for-all-lifes-stages
WebMD. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/depression-
tests#2
Townsend, N., & Foster, C. (2013). Developing and applying a socio-ecological model to
the promotion of healthy eating in the school. Public health nutrition, 16(6),
1101-1108.
Viner, R. M., Ozer, E. M., Denny, S., Marmot, M., Resnick, M., Fatusi, A., & Currie, C.
(2012). Adolescence and the social determinants of health. The lancet, 379(9826),
1641-1652.
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