Nu 304 – Comprehensive Health AssessmentEssay Preview: Nu 304 – Comprehensive Health AssessmentReport this essayComprehensive Health AssessmentLori BoydKaplan UniversityNU304: Health/Wellness Assessment and StrategiesCassandra WoodOctober 17, 2011Comprehensive Health AssessmentThe family that this author has been evaluating is the Lin family. Mei Lin is the 39 year old mother of three. Presently, she is working greater than 40 hours weekly to provide a home for her family. Mei is suffering from fatigue, depression, and has elevated blood pressure and cholesterol. She is also having trouble sleeping. Mei has a 14 year old daughter, Ai-Shi, who is a very physically active as a gymnast and has been experiencing weight loss and thinning hair. Ai-Shi is very responsible and is charge of preparing many meals for her family. Mei also has 13 year old twin boys Hao and Lan that were born prematurely at 32 weeks gestation. Hao appears to not have any issues, and is very involved socially in school. He associates with what most would say are the popular crowd. Lan suffered hearing loss shortly after birth from having gentamycin administered to him. He has hearing aids and is in a different social group from his brother, and associates with the students taking honors classes. Mei and her children have recently learned that the father will not be returning to the United States to live with them as a family. Mei works as a pharmacist and is now solely responsible for the care of her three children. Culturally this family will not want to complain, but physical signs of deterioration are becoming more apparent. This family needs to be approached in a way that will not make them uncomfortable so that they can begin the healing process.
It will be necessary while constructing a comprehensive health assessment for the Lin family to consider a combination factors. Developmental and cultural issues will play a role in the accurate assessment and treatment plan for the Lin family. Most teens need to be approached in a manner in which they are allowed to speak freely and be a part of the decision making process for their individual treatment plan. Because decision making skills are being developed during these years, it is possible that these children could become involved in risk taking behaviors, in order to gain the approval of their peers. This is a time when supervision is necessary so her children can remain safe and healthy. Mei is at a stage developmentally where she is striving for success in the business world, while maintaining harmony and balance in her personal life with her family. She is feeling shame because her husband left her, and is suppressing those feelings. If this cycle continues, her medical problems will have the potential to grow into more complex issues. There are many cultural factors that have the potential to become barriers to treatment if not approached properly. The relationship between the caregiver and Mei will be based on interactions and how comfortable she feels confiding intimate information to that person. Time and space are important for the treatment plan developed, to ensure that appropriate care can be provided. Cultural and developmental stages of the family need to be reviewed and assessed so that age appropriate strategies can be implemented. Mei is working long hours in a stressful environment only to return home to three children that have their own individual personalities with health issues that need to be addressed. It will be imperative to consider time management, and schedule accordingly. This way the family can make a commitment and follow through with the treatment plan developed.
According to Erikson, as cited by Harder, 2009, Mei Lin is considered to be in Middle adulthood. The task of this stage of development is to transmit culture through the family and work to establish a stable environment. Mei is working to create this environment of stability, while trying to maintain her own, knowing her husband will not return home. She is exhausted, feeling tired and depressed, and this is starting to have a negative effect on her physical wellbeing. If she does not address these issues she will not be physically capable of caring for her family. Her three children are all in the same developmental stage according to Erikson, this stage, as cited by Harder, 2009 is commonly known as adolescence. During this stage they are searching for their own identity, while they are seeking social acceptance and growth. They are trying to become independent individuals, with their own thoughts and opinions about life.
Bibliography:
Harvey C. A. M. B. N. D. M. S. D. 1995. “Childhood development from the infancy to a young adult: a qualitative analysis of children’s development from infancy to age 10.” Child Development, Vol. 23, No. 5, pp. 395-402.
The authors report that these children showed an overall developmental history comparable with the other children of their age, with at least one child with a clear developmental delay of a very specific grade. While the authors are concerned with their limited sample size of the group of infants with a clear developmental history, they are willing to make the case that some of the children with a clear developmental history, including the children with a serious developmental delay, might not have this kind of development. As with the other groups the difference between these two groups was similar to that between other children, with these children living in separate and independent communities.
Erikson’s article, “Children at risk of being judged on their progress” has been used by the National Institute of Mental Health, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Justice (see http://www.nip.nih.gov/pubs/ncpd-5-180421 ). “This paper suggests that not only are many children with developmental delays affected by the childhood experience so different from the children with developmental delay, but such children also suffer from deficits in self-esteem, peer support, peer-control and social judgment about adulthood. These problems do not simply disappear after childhood but worsen when it comes to school performance, for example. The authors conclude that the social and emotional support and self-esteem problems of many children with developmental delays are due to poor social judgment, poor socialization, low self esteem, low self-esteem and weak social confidence, as well as poor attachment and emotional well-being. Furthermore, social-emotional and affective problems are more easily distinguished in socializing and socializing with peers and in socializing while in school than in other aspects of childhood. They point out that child-social development is a critical stage in a child’s development, that as children learn the value of being a social organism and to take risks, that a child’s developmental progress will also continue until he or she comes close to maturity. This is the case for nearly all of the children in this paper who have clearly demonstrated profound developmental problems. While there is a clear distinction between developmental problems and developmental delays, there is a distinction nonetheless between developmental differences that are evident on a continuum. “The evidence has shown that for most children, developmental delays and delays in their development are unrelated. Even in children of the opposite sex, however, the development of intellectual and motor functioning is substantially unrelated, and for many children the development of cognitive ability, emotional functioning and social behavior are completely separate issues. If the distinction between developmental development and developmental delays is not clear in later life, it may be due to the relationship between early life developmental delays and later developmental delays, or other developmental problems. The authors conclude that the study suggests that there is strong evidence that early and early life developmental delays, particularly in boys, have important developmental consequences for brain function. For example, deficits in self-esteem or social judgment are also directly linked to other mental disorders at the same time in boys. They also show that these developmental difficulties relate to more serious problems that can lead to other health-related problems such as low self-esteem. The authors conclude that for some child-developmental disorders, there is less clear evidence for the existence of early or early life developmental problems. However, it seems that early life developmental problems are associated with lower self-esteem