Family Stress Checklist - Report Example

Running Head: SCREENING PROJECT Screening Project 351072 Family therapy or family systems therapy is a psychological branch which deals with those families which are experiencing some stressed relationships in order to help nature the necessary change as well as development. In order to conduct the right kind of therapy to a family like George’s, there is need to apply the right tests and checks to different family members (Fawcett and Neukrug, 2006). Family Stress checklist (FSC); Psychological Interview. Psychological interview is carried out in order to assist the affected individual in planning the treatment. In this approach, the interview is supposed to be conducted by a person with experience and knowledge in the field. This would most appropriate if used to examine the child’s behavior (Schmitt and Carroll, 2005). Family stress checklist for the child would include several domains such as; history of the childhood care, perception and attitudes regarding the child, the child’s discipline as well as the parents stress level due to the child’s behavior. This process calls for some careful of the history of review of the parents and their present behavioral and emotional situation. It would help to have clinical judgment of the child. Psychological interview comprises of several interview questions which aims at sorting out the absence or present of some 10 issues including: Neglect or abuse in childhood of the parent. criminality, substance abuse and mental illness history of either parents Low self esteem, depression, isolation as well as coping skills which are generally poor Multiple stresses and crises Suspected abuse by the parents of other children Outbursts of violent tempers by the parents Child’s rigid and unrealistic expectations Parents’ harsh exercises The Child’s negative perception Poor bonding and unwanted child Measure Care giving Exposure to the child In this psychological interview, the psychologist would need to evaluate the level of the care given to the child. This would help to know if there is any further regular care provided for the child. Also required for evaluation is whether there is any kind of informal care assistance offered such as assistance when bathing, transportation to and from school, household chores, dressing and school paperwork. Informal care means the care provided for a child or family member who has a challenge of disability or even ill. Some of the questions the psychologist would ask the family members include question such as: How much stress to you experience while administering care to the child? This would help in investigating the amount of stress caused by the child to the family members and how they deal with this stress within themselves and the family members(Schmitt and Carroll, 2005). Child Improvement Locus of control Scale This program evaluates the possible belief regarding the ability of the child to improve. This is based on development and validation scales. It helps in evaluating parental believes in the influence of the child as it increases with age, external factors such as influence and chance as it greater among some parents than others depending on their cultural background as well as parental influence belief which goes down with severity of the condition or sickness. The Child’s Developmental Assessment According to Fawcett and Neukrug (2006). This includes Psycho educational profile which provides some developmental approach towards the evaluation of the child and related developmental disorders. This approach offers information regarding information on the child’s developmental functioning in perception, communication, social affective behavior, practical abilities, imitation, cognitive performance and areas of cognitive verbal. Under this the child would be presented with some learning materials and toys within some designed play activities. The therapist observes records and examines the responses of the child during the evaluation. The results indicate the relative weaknesses as well as strengths of the child in several areas of behavior and development. It indicates the areas in which the child is performing poorly. Questionnaire on Resources and Stress. Some of the issues addressed by the resources and stress questionnaire include pessimism regarding development of the child, financial problems, the child’s future anxiety, overprotection/dependency, parental affliction, family members burden to the child, lack of integration for the family, child’s social isolation, physical and intellectual incapacitation and the need for the child’s care. The questionnaire on resource and stress is employed in evaluating the ecological causes of stress as well as the family’s stress level generally. The approach is found to fulfill the requirements for acceptable validity level. Necessary assessments for both George and his wife Parent Satisfaction Scale This would facilitate assessment of the relationship between the parent and the child who needs care. This would mean to examine each one of them separately. It helps in establishing whether the child has some troubled relationship with their parents. It would also be employed in examining the response of the parent to the impact of intervention as well as the level of healing the therapy would cause. The approach is used to access the parent’s perception of parenting. This would help the person conducting the informal assessment to compare, define and as well communicate the satisfaction level of the parent. These would include the parent’s performance role in parenting, their level of satisfaction with their child’s relationship as well as their satisfaction with their own performance in the role of parenting (California Departments of Education and Developmental Services, 1997). In order for the therapist to increase empathy and improve communication within the family, they would need to access their performance level as far as the child’s care and parenting roles are concerned. This would depend on the manner in which the parent responds to the questions administered. The information received from each of them would be employed in comparing with the other one’s responses in order to find out the areas which have concordant and discordant perceptions. This would also assist in determining areas that need some therapeutic or clinical interventions. Parenting Stress Index: California Departments of Education and Developmental Services (1997) terms parenting stress index as a tool used in finding out the stressful areas in the interactions of the child and their parents as well as other family members. It is a screening as well as a diagnostic instrument which believes that the total stress which the child’s parents under go comes as a result of the features of the child’s behaviors and chrematistics of the parents towards the child and other family members due to the behavior of the child as well as the circumstances which are linked directly to the role of being the child’s parent or a care giver. The child’s characteristics are evaluated in terms of demanding ness, mood, acceptability, reinforces parent, distractibility, adaptability, mood and hyperactivity. The situational variables and parent personality comprises of some seven subscales including: competence, attachment, isolation, health, depression, role restriction and spouse. This approach would be helpful in early understanding of some dysfunctional systems of parent-child relationships, development of some programs meant for stress reduction, planning for high stress areas treatment and intervention, parenting skills and family functioning and child-abuse risk evaluation. This program has proved to be reliable internally and over some duration of time. The use of parent stress scale has helped in evaluation of appropriate emotions as well as role satisfaction and crucial intolerance while dealing with treatment of problems concerned with emotional-behavioral challenges (Schmitt and Carroll, 2005). Family adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales It measures of the cohesion which is perceived as well as families’ adaptability. It evaluates the ideal and real family’s representation differences they are believed by both the parents and other family members acting as care givers. It is also employed in evaluating the marital satisfaction of the family. Coupled with Clinical Rating Scale, it is reliable in evaluation of family members’ relationship and establishment of diagnosis of the functioning of the family as well as examining the changes over in the treatment course (California Departments of Education and Developmental Services, 1997). Family Assessment Interview This refers to a protocol used in gathering data regarding the family’s preparation for designing and selection of intervention strategy. It is meant to enable good contextual fit which is required for the plan of intervention. This would be necessary if conducted on both parents. The information for these interviews regarding the family members’ reactions and perceptions towards the operation of the problem behaviors, strategies used for support as well as matters used in implementing these strategies are solicited actively in the evaluation and assistance program and development. The interview concentrates on information regarding the approach the family designs its normal daily routines and patterns. This program would assist in identifying the success of the family’s strategies as far as addressing behavior matters of the family are concerned. Under this program, the family’s stress sources are identified and discussed. Family Environmental scale This is an inventory that is used in examination of behavioral patterns in the family regarding control, intellectual cultural orientation, family cohesion and active-recreational orientation. It provides norms in basis of big national samples with families which are distressed and some small family’s samples which have autistic children. The program would be offered to the parents at the start as well as middle of the intervention program for the child. It would assist in evaluating the dynamics of the family at some significant points in the period of the intervention process (Schmitt and Carroll, 2005). The questionnaire needs to be filled up by both the father (George) and the mother of the child (Teresa). Some of the ethical considerations to make while dealing with Georges family include: identification of the potential matters for the therapist and the family members, know the major problem facing each family member, consider consultations from other therapy consultants, check on the professional codes concerning the profession, check on the laws and regulations hat are applicable to the matter, find out possible action course for the whole family, and come up with the most appropriate course of action as you consider the aftermath of the therapy. The therapist also needs to follow up and examine the results of the given therapy. References Fawcett, R., & Neukrug, E. (2006). Essentials of testing and assessment: a practical guide for counselors, social workers, and psychologists (2nd Ed.) Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole. California Departments of Education and Developmental Services. (1997). Autism Resources: Assessment Procedures. Retrieved on Jan 8, 2009 from http://www.behavior-consultant.com/aut-dx-devices.htm Schmitt, B. D and Carroll, C. A. (2005). Family Stress Checklist (FSC). London: Routledge Read More