3. Introduction
– Each person lives among an exciting cast
of characters who inspire them, support
them, and also criticize and fight with
them
– To know a person is to know the people in
their lives
5. The Genogram
(Family Anatomy)
– Essential tool to recall information about
family member’s names, relationships,
and overall structure
– Can be updated at subsequent visits
– Biomedical focus : family medical and
genetic information
– Biopsychosocial focus
6. The Genogram
(Family Anatomy)
Information
– Names
– Ages
– Marital status
– Former marriages
– Children
– Households
– Significant illnesses
– Dates of such
traumatic events as
deaths
– Occupations
– Emotional closeness
– Distance, or conflict
between members
11. The Family Life Cycle
– Developed by family sociologists Hill and
Duvall (8 stages)
– A template to quickly assess a patient and
family’s developmental concerns
– No single “normal” family life cycle
13. Duvall’s Developmental
Stages
Married Couples
– Establish couple identity and a mutually
satisfying marriage
– Realign relationships with extended family
to include spouse
– Make decisions about parenthood
14. Duvall’s Developmental
Stages
Childbearing family
– Integrate infant into family
– Find mutually satisfying ways to deal with
child care responsibilities
– Expand relationships with extended family
by adding parenting and grand parenting
role
15. Duvall’s Developmental
Stages
Families with Preschool Children
– Socialize the children
– Integrate new children while still meeting
needs of the other children
– Maintain healthy relationships within the
family and extended family
16. Duvall’s Developmental
Stages
Families with School-aged Children
– Promote the school achievement and
foster the healthy peer relations of
children
– Maintain a satisfying marital relationships
– Meet the physical health needs of family
members
17. Duvall’s Developmental
Stages
Families with Adolescence
– Balance freedom with responsibility as
teenagers mature and become more
autonomous
– Refocus on marital and career issues
18. Duvall’s Developmental
Stages
Families Launching Young Adults
– Develop adult-adult relationships with grown
children
– Expand family circle to include new members
acquired by the marriage of grown children
– Assist aging and ill parents of husband and
wife
– Renew and renegotiate marital relationship
20. Duvall’s Developmental
Stages
Families In Later Years
– Maintain satisfying living arrangement
– Adjust to reduced income
– Maintain marital relationship
– Continue to make sense of one’s existence
– Maintain intergenerational family ties
– Adjust to loss of spouse
21. Reference
Duvall, E. M. & Miller, B. (1985). Marriage and family
development. New York: Harper & Row.
26. The Family Life Cycle
– The individual life cycles of each family member
intertwines with the life cycles of other family
members, represented by the Family Life Spiral
– Shifting periods
– Centripetal : indicating forces that pull the
family together
– Centrifugal : reflecting the forces that pull
family members more apart from one another
28. Family Assessment
– Family assessment is a continuous activity
based on theoretical concepts and tools
that easily can be integrated into daily
practice
34. Family Assessment
Family PRACTICE
– Presenting problem
– Roles
– Affect
– Communication patterns
– Time in family life cycle
– Illness history
– Coping with stress
– Ecology and culture
35. Family Systems Concepts in
Primary Care
Family
Structure
Family
Process
Family
Across
Time
Family
Characte
ristic
36. Family Characteristics
–The Family as a System
–Family Stability
–Family Transition
–Family World View
–Relational Context of the Symptom
37. Family Characteristics
The Family as a System
– The family system is more than just the
sum of its individual members
– Family groups have unique characteristics
– Organized by interpersonal structures and
processes
– Enable to be both stable and adaptable
over time
39. Family Characteristics
Family Transition
– Interpersonal process by which the family
adapts to developmental growth in
members, and varying expectations and
roles in the community
40. Family Characteristics
Family World View
– Families have general views of themselves
as either competent or ineffective,
cohesive or fragmented
– Based on culture, previous history, and
individual perspectives
41. Family Characteristics
Relational Context of the
Symptom
– The presenting symptom is part of a large
family and psychosocial context that can
influence and be influenced by that
symptom
44. The Purcell
Family Characteristics
Relational context of
the symptom
Mr. Purcell’s more frequent chest
pains
Family stability
Family transition
Mrs. Purcell’s new job
Bob’s upcoming graduation
Mary’s engagement
Family world view
Family as a system
How the family’s functioning as a
whole might play a part in Mr.
Purcell’s symptoms and their
alleviation
45. Family Systems Concepts in
Primary Care
Family
Structure
Family
Process
Family
Across
Time
Family
Characte
ristic
47. Family Structure
Hierarchy
– How power or authority is distributed
within the family
– General cultural consensus places parents
above children in the family hierarchy
– A parentified child, often the oldest,
performs parental functions when one or
both parents have abdicated the role
49. Family Structure
Family Role Selection
– The conscious or unconscious assignment
of complementary roles to members of a
family
– During health crises, family members
seem to adopt identifiable roles
– Caretaker
– The one who “can’t handle bad news”
50. Family Structure
Family Role Selection
– The scapegoat or noble symptom bearer, who is
– Identified by the family as the source of
problems
– Accepts the family’s blame
– Distracts from other individual or family
problems
– Reflects the dysfunction of the family as a whole
55. The Purcell
Family Structure
hierarchy Parentified child
Mary
coalition Mary & Mr. Purcell >> Mrs. Purcell
Bob & Mrs. Purcell >> Mary
Alliance
Generational boundaries
Mary & Mr. Purcell
Bob & Mrs. Purcell
Family role selection Mr. Purcell : Sick member, Scape goat
Mrs. Purcell : Uncaring spouse
Mary : Family health expert
Bob : Mrs. Purcell’s defender
56. Family Systems Concepts in
Primary Care
Family
Structure
Family
Process
Family
Across
Time
Family
Characte
ristic
58. Family Process
Enmeshment
– A system in which members have
– Few interpersonal boundaries
– Limited individual autonomy
– High degree of emotional reactivity
– At later stages of the life cycle,
enmeshment can inhibit individual
development and growth
60. Family Process
Triangulation
– Occurs when a third person is drawn into
a two-person system in order to diffuse
anxiety or intimacy conflicts in the two-
person system
– This process differs from family coalitions
61. Family Process
Family Patterns
– The ordered sequences of interaction that
typify how a family functions, particularly
when under stress
63. The Purcell
Family Process
Enmeshment Mary & Mr. Purcell
Disengagement Mrs. Purcell – Mary
Mrs. Purcell – Mr. Purcell
Triangulation Mr. Purcell – Mary – Mrs. Purcell
Family pattern The focus of attention shifted to
health issues or a third family
member when family members
became upset with each other
64. Family Systems Concepts in
Primary Care
Family
Structure
Family
Process
Family
Across
Time
Family
Characte
ristic
65. The Family Across Time
–Family Developmental Stage
–Family Projection Process
–Intergenerational Coalition
66. The Family Across Time
Family Developmental Stage
– Based on the family life cycle, family
processes and interactions are varies
– Identifying the life cycle stage helps
clinicians to tailor their family-oriented
questions
67. The Family Across Time
Family Projection Process
– The transmission of unresolved conflicts,
issues, roles, and tasks from one
generation to another
68. The Family Across Time
Intergenerational Coalition
– Two members from different generations
against a third member of the family
70. The Purcell
The family across time
Family Developmental Stage Launching children
Family Projection Process Mr. Purcell’s unresolved
grief over his mother’s
death
Intergenerational Coalition Mrs. Purcell’s lack of
attachment to her mother-
in-law
When illness occurs during a centripetal period, like infancy, the family may be more
easily mobilized to care for the ill member than it is during a centrifugal
period like adolescence
The family’s sense of efficacy can be enhanced
when they feel that they have coped with a crisis well, or when the healthcare
provider recognizes their efforts and affirms their strengths
parents to have a private relationship that is
not undermined by children or grandparents
Families with adolescents may appear to be more disengaged
than families with young children,
and still be caring well for one another
the men in each generation
never go to physicians for health problems