Applying the Calgary Assessment and Intervention Model

The study employs the use of the Calgary model in both assessment and recommending suitable interventions for the identified family. The Calgary family assessment and Calgary family interventions have for a long time proven useful guides in establishing family care. The Calgary family intervention model (CFIM), is evidenced based and more preferred by nurses (Wright & Leahy, 2013). The primary theme of family assessment and intervention is to incorporate family members in the well-being of the individuals. Also, it tends to acknowledge the role family plays in the nourishment and health of individuals within the family set up. His constant use of tobacco has impaired his performance and once he had received a warning letter threatening to have him sacked. This has left his wife Beth worried of the fact that he might lose his job.

Poor lifestyle such as smoking and poor choice of foods is linked to lifestyle diseases (“American Diabetes Association,” 2014). The first child Harvey is 16 years and at the peak of his puberty, he is having difficulties expressing himself sexually and has been diagnosed as bisexual. Harvey is also demonstrating signs of mental distress. Besides, there must be enough savings for the purchase of her insulin. Beth normally arrives home early enough to prepare the family dinner, although Jim is never present most of the time. Family Assessment The study applies the Calgary Family Assessment Model (CFAM), which is user-friendly and has proven much effective by practicing nurses (Wright & Leahy, 2013). CFAM enables the collection, organization, analysis of data for care planning in a family set up.

The CFAM is categorized into three aspects namely the developmental, structural and functional contexts of the family. The 16year old boy is bisexual a condition which has resulted in him experiencing mental disruptions. The father is the sole breadwinner of the family, as the mother earns very little that can hardly fend for the family. Additionally, Beth has to pay for her mother’s care at the nursing home, since she does not have an insurance cover. A number of subsystems have been identified within the family set up depending on the existing connections. Some of the subsystems include female, male, sibling, wife-husband, parent-child, supporter,and caregiver. Larger systems give a detailed explanation of the existing social agencies and personnel with whom the family has meaningful contact with on a frequent basis (Isik, 2010),.

Extended Family The paternal extended family is more estranged from the family, Jim grew up in Alaska and that is where most of his extended family members are still living. However, he has a younger sister Joy who is 36, with whom they are close and they occasionally share a lot on the phone. Joy had been working as a nurse in the city of Ozark, during which he could frequently drop by to see his brother’s family until she was relocated to Chicago. Jim had dropped out of school at 18years, he had gone into depression and become an alcohol addict after his parents could not manage to pay his fees, to help keep him in school and continue his education.

Beth has her extended family in Alabama. She grew up in a much loving and warm home. She had one sibling a sister Donna, who works also works as a teacher. Donna was much supportive of Beth until she started having issues with her abusive husband who would consume all the family money in obtaining alcohol and tobacco. Donna would later develop depression. Beth’s Cousin Brad who also lives in Alabama has proven much supportive both financial and in particular to assisting Harvey to overcome his challenges. The genogram below displays a visual model illustrating the family and its relationship to each other on a multigenerational spectrum Larger systems Both couples are working and thus spend a reasonable amount of time with other people other than the family.

Beth has made friends with her colleagues whom they spend time socializing with and talking a lot of women issues, especially parenting. Beth’s friends are nice to her and would always cover up for her she has to care for her baby Casey. Beth also spends time with her sister Donna. Individual family systems exist within broader systems, which could be country, region, class, and neighborhood which acts as the main influencing factors. The five categories of context assessment include ethnicity, race, religion, social class, and the environment. Jim is an African American whereas Beth is Hispanic. Beth claimsto be of Indian heritage as her great-grandmother was an Indian. Both Beth and Jim are Christians even though they do not attend church services frequently.

They live in a two bedroomed rental house, fitted with electricity and a continuous supply of water. The neighborhood is fenced and provides a sufficient playground for Casey and the neighboring kids. The families have lived there for four years and do not intend to leave soon. The house is spacious and the children have grown fond of the place and made a lot of friends. To add is that the rent is manageable; being it is far away from the town. As a result, Jim had to work much harder to cater for the family needs. Stage three is families with young children. Beth and Jim only have one little girl who is four years, Harvey is 16 and into puberty.

The wide spacing between Harvey and Casey is explained by the trauma the family experienced after losing the immediate follower to Harvey. After Harvey, Beth and Jim had whom they named Ben. However, he shows them love and would take them to their respective clinics on due dates. Harvey, would occasionally display mental distress and refuse to eat or come out of his room. At times he would perform poorly in his academics and fail to engage in some house activities, a state which would cause a wave of anxiety in the whole family. Functional Assessment The functional assessment of the CFAM model analyzes how the family interactsamongst themselves and the behaviors individual familymembers portray towards each other (Wright & Leahy, 2013). The two primary concepts of functional assessment include instrumental and expressive.

He normally, have his meals in the office hencewould be rarely seen dining with the family. Expressive Functioning The CFAM Model analyses expressive functioning based on nine subcategories of communication (Wright & Leahy, 2013). Such include verbal, non-verbal, emotional, circular, beliefs, roles, alliances and coalitions, influence and power, problem-solving. Verbal communication- the family demonstrates a good sense of verbal communication, they understand each other very well except for little Casey who displays difficulty comprehending some words. Non-Verbal communication- during the interview both Beth and Jim maintained an eye contact which is very good. Beth believes in positive living while Jim is the contrary. He does not care to cease smoking despite warnings. Roles- the family roles are distinct and each individual is responsible for a line of duty.

Jim meets all the family’s financial needs. Beth ensures everything in the house is in order. The Bowens family theory states that when an individual in the family, particularly children are experiencing emotional instability, the whole family tend to be affected. A behavior displayed by a family member impacts different on the rest of the family members (Haefner, 2014). Each person would have adopted their own coping skills as they attempt to regain stability (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2014). For Instance, Harvey would occasionally come home depressed after being intimidated by his colleagues. At first, he would be violent and rowdy then go into a state of depression common with people experiencing mental disruptions. Intervention: assess Jim's desire to obtain new information, as this would determine his ability to comprehend.

The second intervention is to ask Jim about his preferred method of learning so that on initiation of the education process, I would have an idea of what works best for Jim (Novotny, 2015). The third interventionwould be to ask Jim aboutprevious life experiences and information he has on tobacco use, and frequent consumption of energy drinks as this would enable determine the existing knowledge gaps. Family Health Diagnosis: Anxiety expressed by Beth in relation to Casey’s medical condition as evidenced by the much attention she gets and the fact that the family has to save enough for her special meals and insulin. Intervention: Beth is afraid that she might lose Casey. Also, incorporation of an open discussion in the family whereby each individual was allowed to express themselves would help alleviate mental distress in both Beth and Harvey.