Elderly victims of violence: family assessment through the Calgary model

ABSTRACT Objective: To understand the structure, development, and functionality of the family of the elderly victim of violence. Method: Descriptive research with a qualitative approach, based on the Calgary Family Assessment Model. Four elderly people who suffered violence and their family members were assessed at home, from October to November 2019. Data analysis was based on the genogram and ecomap, as proposed in the model. Results: It was found that the members of the four families had low schooling and financial difficulties. As for the social support network, the neighbors, the health unit and the Church stood out. The members of each family nucleus expressed feelings of fear, insecurity, anger, nervousness, sadness and impotence, resulting from the conflict between the couple. Final considerations: In the assessed families, weaknesses and potentialities in the structure, development and functioning are highlighted, which must be considered in the elaboration of the care plan.

Die Erfassung des allgemeinen familiären Funktionsniveaus: Psychometrische Evaluation der deutschen Version der Brief Assessment of Family Functioning Scale

ZusammenfassungDie Funktionalität des Systems Familie spielt nicht nur in der Entwicklungspsychologie und Familienforschung, sondern auch bei vielen körperlichen Erkrankungen und psychischen Störungen eine zentrale Rolle. Trotz dieser hohen Relevanz existieren nur sehr wenige ultra-kurze, d. h. anwendungsökonomische Selbstbeurteilungsverfahren, die das allgemeine familiäre Funktionsniveau abbilden. Diese Lücke schließt die Brief Assessment of Family Functioning Scale (BAFFS), die aus drei Items der General Functioning Scale des international weit verbreiteten Family Assessment Device besteht. In dieser Studie wurde die deutsche Version der BAFFS erstmals an einer großen und repräsentativen Allgemeinbevölkerungsstichprobe (n=2463) psychometrisch evaluiert. Mittels Multigruppen-konfirmatorischen Faktorenanalysen konnte starke Messinvarianz für relevante Teilstichproben (Frauen vs. Männer; Probanden in Partnerschaften mit vs. ohne Kinder) bei guter Modellpassung gezeigt werden. Obwohl eines der drei Items, welches als einziges negativ formuliert ist, ungenügende psychometrische Itemkennwerte aufwies, lag die interne Konsistenz bei Cronbachs α=0,71. Als Hinweis auf eine adäquate Konstruktvalidität fanden sich hypothesenkonform Assoziationen des familiären Funktionsniveaus mit dem sozioökonomischen Status sowie mit aktueller Depressivität und Ängstlichkeit. Trotz ausstehender Anwendungserfahrungen und psychometrischer Analysen der Kurzskala Allgemeines Familiäres Funktionsniveau (KSAFF) als der deutschen Version der BAFFS in relevanten Zielgruppen und bei Patienten in Klinik und Forschung, kann das mit drei Items sehr anwendungsökonomische Verfahren zur orientierenden Erfassung des allgemeinen familiären Funktionsniveaus empfohlen werden, zumal es in der Allgemeinbevölkerung mit einigen Einschränkungen akzeptable bis gute psychometrische Kennwerte zeigte.

Self-perception of nurses’ competence in family assessment and intervention

Objective. To describe nurses’ self-perception of competence in family assessment and intervention Methods. A sample of 551 Portuguese primary care nurses was selected. A Likert-type questionnaire with 11 items corresponding to the areas of care proposed by the Dynamic Model of Family Assessment and Intervention (MDAIF) was administered. Each item consists of 7 optional responses; a score equal to or greater than 4 denotes competence. Results. The nurses perceived themselves as competent in areas of care belonging to the development dimension of the MDAIF (parental role, adaptation to pregnancy, and family planning), as well as in the caregiver role (which belongs to the functional dimension). There was a progressive decline in self-perception of competence over the stages of the nursing process. Conclusion. In this study, crucial aspects related to nurses’ self-perception of their competence in family assessment and intervention were observed, and need to be addressed in the training of nurses in all areas of care included in the Model. This should facilitate awareness of the competences needed to provide the best care for families.

Kontribusi keberfungsian keluarga terhadap kesejahteraan subjektif pada remaja etnis Minang

The studies show that culture and family functioning have a contribution to the well-being of youth. Ethnic Minang with matrilinear culture and collective owned, of course, also plays a role in teenagers’ lives. Researchers aim to test the role of a family’s functioning towards adolescents’ subjective well-being in the Minang ethnicity. The design of this study is quantitative with the selection of samples in the form of purposive sampling. Participants in the study were 315 ethnic Minang adolescents who had filled out questionnaires containing Family Assessment Device and subjective well-being scales. A simple linear regression analysis test shows that family functioning contributes to subjective well-being in ethnic Minang youth (R2 = 0.177, F=67.347, p=0.000). That is, family functioning as a predictor variable contributed 17.7% to subjective well-being. The more optimal the functioning of a family, the more its members feel prosperous.

Family Functioning in Families Affected by Parental Mental Illness: Parent, Child and Clinician Ratings

Family functioning is often impaired in families with a parent with mental illness and is linked to child mental health. This study aims to gain a better understanding of family functioning in affected families by comparing ratings among family members and by analyzing associations with clinician-rated family functioning. The cross-sectional sample comprised 210 families with ratings of 207 patients, 139 partners, and 100 children. Parents with a mental illness as well as their partners and children completed the German version of the Family Assessment Measure (FAM). Clinician ratings were obtained by the Global Assessment of Relational Functioning Scale (GARF). We conducted several mixed models to compare ratings of family functioning while accounting for family cluster. Family dysfunction was consistently elevated compared to a normative sample. On several domains, parents with a mental illness perceived family functioning to be worse compared to their partners and children. Partners and children did not differ in their perceptions of family functioning. Ratings of family members were moderately associated with clinician ratings. We discuss the importance of multi-informant assessment of family functioning and the implementation of family-based interventions for families with a parent with mental illness.

A Practical Tool for Family Assessment Based on the Social Relations Model

An empirically based family assessment can help family therapists understand how a family functions. In systemic therapy a family is seen as a dynamic system in which the family members form interdependent subsystems. The Social Relations Model (SRM) is a useful tool to study such interdependence within a family. According to the SRM, each dyadic score is viewed as the sum of an unobserved family effect, an individual actor and partner effect, and a relation-specific effect. If dyadic data are obtained for a specific family using a round robin design, these different SRM effects can be calculated using an ANOVA-approach. To gain insight into the functioning of a particular family, the family-specific SRM effects can be compared to those from a norm sample and it can be deduced whether that family has deviating scores on a particular SRM effect. Currently, such a family assessment relies on the mean and variance of the SRM ANOVA scores in the norm sample. However, family therapists may not always have access to these data, making the current approach of SRM family assessment not as useful in practice. In this article, we introduce a user-friendly web application that uses an alternative method for SRM family assessment. This alternative strategy requires as input the population parameter estimates of SRM means and variances more commonly described in SRM family literature.

The Abandonment Syndrome as a Determinant in the Surgical Denouement in Elderly Population in Mexico City

The demographic aging in Mexico is turning into one of the main concerns in the country; this raises the hospital admissions in different levels of medical care. The increase of surgical procedures causes high rates of morbidity and mortality in this population, nowadays, there are multiple instruments used for evaluating the surgical risk and mortality, however, the negative denouements still happen, this can be attributed to the existence of other variables which are not considered such as social kind and the ones which influences in the denouements of hospitalized patients. Objectives: The present study proposes to perform a socio-family assessment in elderly people as a non-considered variable in the pre-surgical and post-surgical evaluation through OARS (Older American and Resource Socials) scale; the evaluation of surgical denouements was recorded with the Dindo-Clavien scale. Methods: Total population was composed for 67 patients, 50.7% male and 49.3% female; mean age of 73.61 years. Results: Statistical analysis showed a p=0.012 in the xi² test and an r=0.67 in the Pearson correlation of OARS/ Dindo-Clavien. Conclusion: In conclusion, this study pretends to beef up the idea that social assessment in elderly population has an important transcendence in surgical denouements and is worthy of a deep development.