The Kennedy Family - Case Study Example

The main aim of this paper is to make an application of FS3I that is Family Systems Stressor Strengths Inventory to a family that I have been working with and make a presentation of an examination of the findings. To achieve the main purpose of this analysis, the family to be discussed is called a Kennedy Family. The family that is discussed here is a nuclear family through traditional, and they live in a home of a single family.

The family here comprised of a father that is Kennedy of age 38, a mother of age 36 Brenda and their four children namely Mark 9 years old, Philip aged seven, Linda 5 years old and the youngest is Scott aged three years. Brenda and Kennedy met and got married, and they have been a married couple for ten years. The mother Brenda is not employed she stays at home to perform her childrens activities and household duties. On the other hand, the husband is employed and works at an accounting firm outside their home. The couple is also learned up to college level. The wife Brenda was initially a full time registered nurse but stopped working full time in that field after the birth of their second born, and she started staying at home. Brenda is more often at home as she is working as a part-time registered nurse at a nearby local hospital. The father of this family is the only one who works full time is thus considered the familys breadwinner since he is the only one who is working full time and has to work harder for his family.

The children in this family have a range of two years in their age meaning they have a close bond in relating due to their age difference. All their four children involve themselves in school co-curriculum activities like; ballet dance, gymnastics, soccer, and football. The family of Kennedy can be described to be a more focused family as a unit and in activities. The family is fond of participating together in all they do like they eat together every day especially at night when everyone is in, and every week on Sundays they opt to have a family movie or game. In addition to that going to church together, every Sunday is part of their life as a family, and they attend to all church events. Not to forget this family is very social and they are lucky since they live in a neighborhood that is family oriented thus they frequently socialize with their neighbors. Moreover, the immediate family together with the extended family are highly involved in the lives of Kennedys family since they do not live more than 60 miles from this family.

Family Systems Stressor Strengths Inventory

FS3I that is the Family Systems Stressor Strength Inventory is considered a measurement or assessment family that is intended to be used by the families as a researcher and an author Ackley (2008) noted. The measurement or assessment tool is used in the identification of any stressful situation that could be in different families and all the strengths in different families that are used in maintaining healthy functioning of a family. The families being assessed too are given an option to complete the assessment together or members to do it individually. The assessment is done in three main sections which are later rated on a certain scale from zero (which is mostly not applicable) to five a stage of high stress and the use of assessment questions like:

General questions: events or stressors that are related to the Kennedy family who is capable of creating stress in the family or between their family and their environment. Bearing in mind, there are around 25 stressors that are listed and have a rating between 0 to 5 and the way it creates tension or stress for an individual.Specifics: that is how specific stressor producing event affects the overall health of a family that is both as a whole or individually. However, in this section, there are about 12 questions that are detailed.

. Family System Strengths: in this assessment, the third party indicates different day to day aspects of Kennedys family life and functions. Most the whole sections to the contribute to the well- being of both the whole family as a unit and for individual members. In this section, there are 16 attributes and traits listed.

Family Systems Stressor Strength Inventory scores show how well the different aspects are applied in the Kennedy family. Some of those aspects include communications, responsibility, work situation, housekeeping standards, health issues, and satisfaction. The scoring was then divided into two distinct sections these are; Clinical Perceptions and Family Perception Scores. The two sections were later divided further into three other parts. The stressor factors and tool strengths are social support, family interactions, individuals well-being and physical environment. The major factor that is found to be affecting a family as a whole or some members of the family is stress.

The origin of stress is mostly related to the external or family events as stated by ABCX Model that is according to Kaakinen, Coehlo, Steele, Tabacco, & Hanson (2014). Some stressor can also be part of the source of a strength that can lead to support system or be a happiness source. That only happens when the stress source does not outweigh the benefit. There is a problem in Kennedys family that is with his wife Brenda who is not able to balance her children that is after school activities. Each day she makes housekeeping take most of her time such that she even lacks her tine and the husband time. Her schedule seems busy, and she also sees it as being very busy and it even becomes a problem in incorporating all her daily exercise for the better of her overall health. The couple time in this family is reduced because of the busy schedule of the kids and Kennedy's work that overload these parents. On the other hand, the couple was used to attending church groups together every month and monthly dates. The stability of this family has now become very unstable thus causing a mild stressor to the family as a unit. Therefore, through learning and on ways to stabilize, the house will slowly emerge with a positive outcome.

The family, therefore, need the three basic interventions like primary, secondary and tertiary according to Family Systems Stressor Strength Inventory (FS3I). Primary section includes the reducing risk factor, strategies for retaining wellness and prevention of stress. Provision of intervention will make the possibility of having a stressor in future to reduce. The different variables are more likely to affect how the Kennedy cope with the resources they have, their level of stress and how to overcome them.

After the occurrence of the onset stressor is when coping with the situation kicks off. Through the use of any stress reduced method or through compromising as a whole family unit, it helps reduce the challenges that one as an individual in a family unit may face. Self-care is the best way to stress management during hard times that is according to CDC - Center for Disease Control ("Coping with Stress," 2018). If it is one of the family parents who is affected they should seek help from their partner and at the same time come together as one family. That will be the greatest remedy in case of stress.

According to Jan McCulloch, (2012), the best way that one can lighten the daily struggles burden is by making sure that you spend most of your time with your family members. Any family will be willing to focus on pertaining the maintenance of wellness through the focuses aiming at coping with the present weaknesses and supporting the already existing strength. For a family to do, so there must be the systematic support that involves family sport, taking daily meals together, playtime without distraction by the television and after-school activities.

Additionally, this family also wants to go back to their basics of going to church and attending the church activities and their religious beliefs as a family unit. The family aims at reading the bible on a daily basis if possible. Furthermore, to break their busy schedules, the family plans to include a family movie night each week. The current health carryout comprises the mother taking the kids to walks in the various parks. The father when free he walks with the kids outdoors and practices football and baseball with them on the weekends. Both parents participate in bedtimes activities such as giving the kids bedtime stories and systematically the Kennedy family is achieving their goals.

The key goal of using the Family Systems Stressor Strengths Inventory is to not only assess risk and safety, but it is mainly concerned with the well-being of any family (Freese & Russell, 2011). This assessment aids in identifying strengths and areas for improvement. Furthermore, the aim of the assessment is too practical actions in assessing the condition and needs of any family unit, and this is done by identifying the needs that relate to risk and safety within the family (Hagstrom, 2015).

The goals and needs of a family are identified by the help of Family Systems Stressor Strengths Inventory (FS31) and the problems that the family is going through properly identified and addressed. This assessment tool can also be helpful when identifying the various changes an individual undergoes especially in a family unit helping preserve or restore what might have been going wrong within the family. This particular family that I worked with took this assessment, and we were able to identify the stressors that affect them. The family however, as the assessment shows needs to work as a unit and gradually they will restore the good changes they feel like they have disappeared.

References

Ackley, B. J. (2008). Nursing (are Guidelines. evidence-based nursing (are (guidelines:| SBN: 978-(), 323, 4624-4.

Coping with Stress. (2018). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved 3 February 2018, from https://www.cdc.gov/features/copingwithstress/index.html

Freese, B. T., & Russell, J. (2011). Neuman Systems Model-based practice: Guidelines and practice tools. The Neuman systems model, 136.

Hagstrom, S. K. (2015). Family stress in long-term pediatric critical care: A mixed methods study (Doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota).

Jan McCulloch, B. (2012). Family Health Care Nursing: Theory, Practice, and Research. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 4(1), 67-70.

Kaakinen, J. R., Coehlo, D. P., Steele, R., Tabacco, A., & Hanson, S. M. H. (2014). Family health care nursing: Theory, practice, and research. FA Davis.