Dr. Hanan Abbas: Family Function

Family Function
Dr. Hanan Abbas

Family Medicine
• Family practice is a clinical specialty

concerned with human considerations
which seeks to blend scientific medicine
with behavioral concepts.
• It places man in a social context.
• Family medicine allows the family physician to
confront relatively large number of unselected
conditions.
• Family medicine is the academic discipline of
family practice, it is the body of knowledge and
skills applied by the family physician as he
provides primary, continuing and comprehensive
health care to pts and their families.
Family
• A significant group of intimate people

with a history and a future.
• Adult partners with or without children,
function in a setting where there is a sense
of home and there is a sense of home and
nurturing relationship.
• A sociocultural system consisting
of an adult or adults or children in
which there is a commitment to
nurture members emotionally and
physically and to share resources
such as time, space, and finances.
Family functions (APGAR)
• Adaptation: the utilization of intra and

extrafamilial resources for problem
solving when family equilibrium is
stressed during a crisis.
• Partnership: the sharing of decision
making and nurturing responsibilities by
family members.
• Growth: the physical and emotional
maturation and self fulfillment that is
achieved by family members through
mutual support and guidance.
• Affection: the caring or loving
relationship that exists among family
members.
• Resolve: the commitment to devote time
to other members of the family for
physical and emotional nurturing. It also
usually involves a decision to share wealth
and space.
When to assess family
functions?
• When a new pt enters into a practice.
• When family members are called
upon to assist in pt care.
• When a pt's history overtly suggests
family dysfunction as the etiology of
a health problem.
What are the developmental stages of
family life cycles? What crises and clinical
problems may be associated with each
stage?
• Birth of family: originates with marriage

of couple.
• Early sexual adjustment and sexual
problems may be associated with this
stage.
• Expansion: begins with birth of first child and
continues until the youngest reaches adulthood.
This phase includes the period of fertility, the
period of physical and social maturation of
children. During this stage normal crises
include: birth of a child, separation anxiety,
teenage identity crises, "empty nest"syndrome.
Examples of clinical problems may include:
postpartum depression, and hyperactive child.
• Dispersion: begins when the first child
achieves adult status and continue until all
children have grown and left home.
• Career stagnation and the change of
occupation are normally associated with
this stage and may cause depression.
• Independence: begins when all children
have reached adulthood and left home so
parents again live alone.
• Normal crises include: menopause,
marital readjustment, and death of parents.
Depression may develop.
• Replacement: begins when the parents
retire from their major life roles and ends
with their deaths. Usually includes a
dependency stage of variable length.
• During this stage normal crises include;
physical disability, retirement, death of
mate, and loneliness.
How do you assess family
resources?
• The family's ability to adapt to or cope with
a crisis depends largely on its resources.
• These resources are considered effective in
a family when the following conditions are
met:
• social interaction is evident among family
members with extra familial social group
members, and friends.
• Cultural pride or satisfaction is present.
• Appropriate religion offers satisfying extra
familial spiritual, educational, and
economic support.
• Economic stability is able to meet
reasonable economic demands of normal
life events.
• Education of family members is adequate to
allow members to comprehend and to solve
the problems.
• Medical care is available on a continuous
basis to provide comprehensive health care
for all family members.
What are the common episodes of
?family crises
• Crises may be defined as emotionally or
physically significant episodes that produce
change in the lives of family members.
• Commonly there are four classes of family
crisis:
• Crisis involving status shift which include
sudden impoverishment, prolonged
unemployment, sudden wealth or fame, and
political dehumiliation.
• Crisis of abandonment which include death of
child or spouse, hospitalization of child or
spouse, runaway, and divorce.
• Crisis of addition, which include unwanted
pregnancy, adoption, gain of stepfather, gain of
stepmother, extended families or friends become
household members.
• Crisis of demoralization which include adultery,
drug abuse, and delinquency.
• Thank you

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Family Function

Dr. Hanan Abbas

• Family practice is a clinical specialty

• A significant group of intimate people

• Adaptation: the utilization of intra and

• Birth of family: originates with marriage

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