Introduction
Many families experience stressful situations that predispose them to crises. For the case of Juanita Brown, biological, sociocultural, behavioral, physical environment, health system, and behavioral factors impact the situation. The biological factors include the different ages of the family members. Mrs. Brown is 48 years, her mother is 72 years, and her children are nine, 13, and 18 years old. Another biological factor is genetics. The family has a history of chronic diseases. Her father died five years back of a heart attack, and the mother has diabetes, hypertension, and breast cancer. Psychological factors are those that predispose an individual to mental stress. In this case, they include taking care of the sick mother who is unable to walk and function independently, losing her husband and father, and lacking a job. These factors have resulted in depression and a feeling of not wanting to live anymore.
Main body
Living in a rural community is a physical environmental factor. Furthermore, Juanita faces many sociocultural factors that include the lack of a marital partner after the death of her husband, the lack of income attributed to unemployment. Also, she does not have marketing skills. As a result, she receives aid from the government. Although the behavioral factors are not clearly identified, the family seems to be living unhealthy lifestyles that predispose them to lifestyle diseases. Furthermore, stressful behaviors are present because of the loss of loved ones and harsh living conditions among other factors. Finally, Juanita lacks health insurance coverage for all her members of the family, which is a health system factor.
This case is a crisis involving many factors that have resulted in feelings of hopelessness and depression. According to Macdonald (2016), a situational crisis may be caused by factors like the death of a loved one, loss of a job, severe illnesses, and change of role and status in the family. In this case, Juanita has no job, she lost her father and husband, her mother has severe illnesses, and she is the head of the family possible after losing the spouse.
As a nurse, I will utilize Roberts’ Seven-Stage Crisis Intervention Model to resolve the family crisis. Counseling will be the core objective of the intervention plan. Planning and conducting a comprehensive assessment is essential in the identification of actual, precipitating, and risk factors associated with the crisis (Roberts & Ottens, 2005; Ohanga-Too, 2014). Establishing a therapeutic relationship through effective communication will help in advancing the interventions. The next step is to encourage Juanita to explore her feelings and emotions through effective communication in the form of storytelling and answering questions before starting to challenge the maladaptive behaviors and beliefs. Such a thing will result in the identification of coping strategies that will be implemented through an action plan. Finally, a follow-up plan shall be arranged to assess the post-crisis status of the client.
Conclusion
The interventions will change if many families in the population are experiencing similar problems. I will be forced to report the findings and suggestions about the issues in the community to relevant stakeholders to take appropriate action. Such a thing will result in public health interventions that will involve the spreading of health education about various aspects of the family crises. The crisis programs will assess, manage, or refer cases identified in the community in addition to educational campaigns. Although the Roberts’ Seven-Stage Crisis Intervention Model will be applied, the target client will be the community rather than a particular individual or a family.
References
Macdonald, D. K. (2016). Crisis theory and types of crisis. Web.
Ohanga-Too, A. (2014). Comparison between psychological first aid and Roberts seven stage model interventions. Web.
Roberts, A. R., & Ottens, A. J. (2005). The seven-stage crisis intervention model: A road map to goal attainment, problem solving, and crisis resolution. Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention, 5(4), 329-339.