Family Structure -Caring for Families

 Need of Family Focus

  • Health and illness behaviors are learned within the context of family.
  • Family units are affected when one or more healthy members experience health problems.
  • Families affect the health of individual members and vice versa .
  • Health care effectiveness is improved when emphasis is placed on the family.
  • Promotion , maintenance and restoration of the health of families is important to the survival of society
Definition of Family
  • The family is a group of persons united by ties of marriage ,blood or adoption , constituting a single household , interacting and communicating with each other in their respective social roles
  • Family health is a dynamic, changing, relative state of well-being which includes the biological, psychological ,spiritual , sociological, and culture factors of the family system.
Structure of Family
Traditional Family
  • It is composed of a father, a mother and their children. These people, married and living together in one house make up the nuclear family. Relatives, such as aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents, who may or may not live with the nuclear family, are part of the extended family. This family group usually live in close geographic proximity to members of the extended family, who provided a sense of stability and belonging.
Single – Parent Families
  • Single parents may be never – married, separated, divorced or widowed. Most often, the single parent is divorced or widowed, but increasing numbers of never married men and women are choosing to become parents.
Alternate Family Structure
Cohabiting Families
  • It includes those individuals who choose to live together for a variety of reasons: relationships, financial need, changing values
Although the single person is not living with others, he or she is a part of a family of origin, usually has a social network with significant others. Majority of single adults living alone are found in to age groups: the young adult who has achieved independence and enters the work force and the elderly person, left alone through death of a spouse. (Taylor, et.al., 1989)
Family Health Care Nursing
  •  is defined as “the process of providing for health care needs of families that are within the scope of nursing practice .