Family Resiliency Assessment - Essay Example

Family Resiliency Assessment Rebbeca Linares Define your family system. This definition should be supplemented   by a graphic representation (i.e.genogram, culturagram, eco-map) My family system was not very stable and empowering- the relationships between family members remained tense and problematic due to a number of reasons. The key characteristics that are shared across my genetic genealogy include depression, rape and molestation, alcoholism, and conflicts in relationships. These patterns have significantly influenced the social interactions and perceptions in my family. While my deceased maternal grandparents were married and had stable relationships that yielded ten children, this pattern changed in my mother’s lineage. My parents were never married and after their break up my mother had two more relationships and had two more daughters from these other relationships. Just like my mother, I have had relationship problems. I have been in three relationships and was married once. My relationship with my daughter’s father and ex-husband were extremely stressful. I am currently in a good relationship even though I find myself struggling to stay positive at times due to my past life circumstances. It is possible to demonstrate the system of my family with this genogram as well: 2. Describe and discuss the key processes of family resilience: Belief Systems, Organizational Patterns, Communication Processes as they apply to yourself and your family.  It is rather difficult to outline belief systems of my family because I can hardly define some attitudes or views that remained unchanged through generations. Belief systems define person`s attitude to people, institutions, society, phenomena of life (Walsh, 2006). Among positive belief systems I can probably name the importance of education. Regardless of the challenges I made sure that I put myself through school so that my daughter had a role model to look up to. My mother who didn’t receive an education was not very supportive of me or my sisters when it came to attending school, but I made sure that my daughter did not have to face the experience and challenges I faced by instilling in her the importance of school since a very young age. There has not been a lot of emphasize on education from my maternal genealogy. My grandparents were poor and my mother never received the opportunity to further her study. However, my mother did try to explain the importance of education, but I have always felt that my life experiences gave me the will to pursue it on my own, making it my priority and breaking the lack of education cycle, the same values that I have passed down to my daughter. My desire to assist people in their troubles was shaped as a result of this family belief of a great value of education. There are also negative beliefs which are shared in the family and there is a need to identify and neutralize them. Among negative belief systems I can name alcoholism as the way of coping with problems instead of solving them. It has triggered parent-child conflict in my family history. My mother and I had a conflicting relationship because of her alcoholism, and I see the same pattern in my daughter who is currently in a major conflict with her father because of his alcoholism. My mother’s alcoholism seriously affected my views regarding alcohol intake, and I grew up with a negative perception towards alcohol. As a mother, I passed these views down to my daughter as I have always explained to her the effect of alcoholism. Communication was always a weak spot of my family. As I mentioned already instead of dealing with problems and resolving conflicts some members of my family preferred avoiding them with the help of drugs and break ups. According to Walsh in resilient families family members elaborate effective communication patterns when dealing with problems and create problem solving mechanisms that actually work (Walsh, 2006). But having witnessed my parents’ break-up, I grew up thinking that leaving a relationship that was not working was a better option than staying and fighting for it. This phenomenon has been explained by Walsh as well in one of his books. Another problem was the relationships with siblings. My mother and her siblings are not close, something I believe she has passed down to us because my young sister and I don’t get along. Since my mother was not close to her siblings, we never learned the significance of sibling friendship and closeness who argues that children brought up in unstable relationships are likely to have failed relationships in the future because they don’t learn the significance of building relationships. Unfortunately, I did not have a clear idea of organizational patterns within my family because there was no coherent structure and organization among my family members. The absence of organizational patterns resulted in chaotic atmosphere and deep psychological problems for my relatives. Nevertheless, this experience was useful for me and I have learned that there is a necessity in organization patterns and have some in my own family. Walsh suggests that people who go through problematic relationships in their childhood turn out to be more resilient and coherent as they understand want they want and what they do not want in their families (Walsh, 2006). 3. Identify current stressors for yourself and your family. Discuss the individual, interpersonal, environmental and community risk factors, including any social, economic and political injustices Current stressors of my family can be regarded as echoes of past traumas in my family. After my grandparent’s death, my mother’s brother molested her and also did the same thing to me, which significantly affected us psychologically and socially. Since that incident, I have been struggling to trust people, especially men. As a teenager, I battled against negative thoughts and self-esteem issues, but I was able to overcome them because God blessed me with a beautiful daughter who I had to get myself better for. According to Henderson et al. (2007, p. 6), children look up to elder family members as a source of love, security, support, nurturance, and safety. When my uncle molested us, he took away these virtues from us. This explains why my mother and I had difficulties in establishing long-lasting intimate relationships. As a result of my uncle’s actions, both my mother and I suffered from depression, another resilient pattern in my family. That is why any new relationships for women of my family is regarded as a risk factor but I hope that my daughter will be free of this stressor. Depression due to financial instability is another risk factor of my family. Some members react on critical periods in life pessimistically and when facing some problems react on it with depression. 4.Describe and discuss the current status of the protective mechanisms utilized by yourself and your family. As above, discuss individual, interpersonal, environmental and community protective factors including any social, economic and political supports. Regardless of these challenges in my genealogy, my family has relied upon several protective mechanisms for its survival. The support of extended family members has been a critical protective measure in my family. Even though we have weak sibling relationships in my family, there have been some supportive members in my family. My grandparents were very caring and understanding and in critical times of my mother when they were alive. My father was also very supportive of me in the short time I knew him, and I have been very supportive of my daughter. So in problematic situation it was common to address to extended family for a piece of advice and care. I consider that it is important to know how to deal with a problem when facing one and addressing to certain social organizations, friends, extended family members can be a very good and effective protective pattern in critical situation however it is still better to elaborate a couple of working mechanisms. 5. Discuss the impact of race, class, gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation and differing personal abilities upon family resilience, stressors and protective mechanisms. Fortunately, I have never felt myself special or different due to my race, class or ethnicity unlike many other people in America. The only problem that was persistent in my family and that could be connected with sex peculiarities is the ability to cope with problems. Women in my family often bore a load of domestic responsibilities on their shoulders while men often escaped them. My grandmother raised ten children, my mother had her three daughters without men`s support. This disproportion affected resilience, stressors and protective mechanisms of my family as women have slowly learned to rely on themselves only. This also affected me when my relationships failed but in some way my past experience helped to overcome my own problems. I have learned through crisis and problems that I would be able to handle my responsibilities of a mother 6. Reflect on your experience in conducting an assessment on yourself. How would you deal with these feelings in your work with families? Undertaking this paper has made me reflect on the generational challenges and trauma that will shape my life as a social worker. I believe that only those people who have overcome real family problems can understand and support others. This is a concept of a wounded healer which states that dealing with problems of the other you heal them as well as yourself. Welsh emphasizes the necessity of struggles and hardships in family life because they shape the person (Welsh, 2006). This paper has also enhanced my skills and knowledge concerning protective and resilience measures necessary for positive outcomes. Jordan & Franklin (2011, p. 29) require social workers to evaluate their client’s resilience and strengths when conducting social assessments. Writing this paper has enabled me to reflect on my resilience and protective measures, something that I believe will be useful in my career. References Henderson, N., Benard, B., & Sharp-Light, N. (Eds). (2007). Resiliency in action: Practical ideas for overcoming risks and building strengths in youth, families & communities. Ojai, CA: Resiliency in Action Inc. Jordan, C., & Franklin, C. (2011). Clinical assessment for social workers: Quantitative and qualitative methods, (3rd Ed.). Chicago, IL: Lyceum Books Inc. Walsh, F. (2006). Strengthening Family Resilience, Second Edition, New York: The Guilford Press Read More