As a rule, nursing professionals who work in the community utilize family approaches. It is significant to differentiate them because of the possibility to maintain the wrong operations. The family-focused approach presupposed that a family is a whole with its specific health responsibilities. Thus, nursing is to ensure that family functions are supported. A family is to be treated and assessed as a group. All interventions should help in the development of its abilities to deal with health responsibilities and lifestyle transitions.
Family-oriented care is observed when a professional who is working with a patient involves one’s family in this process and cooperates with its members, underlying supportive and risk behaviors. This approach is often used when focusing on the population and emphasizing health promotion and disease reduction, while the family-oriented approach is preferable when dealing with disease control and rehabilitation (Lundy & Janes, 2014).
Community-Based Services for the Promotion of Health for Families
To promote health for families, professionals should refer to community-based services because they can reach more clients in this way. First of all, they can start with family support services that can be seen in different forms. They can include assistance for adolescent parents or those who have problems with substance abuse (Children’s Bureau, 2016). Community-based services can include housing and employment. Receiving an opportunity to earn money and live in a decent environment, families are likely to enhance their quality of life and reduce health risks. Mental health services can be based on the cooperation of families within the community and improved access to needed care.
Language assistance can improve the health of those families that came from foreign countries, as they are likely to face difficulties when describing their problems (Bright Futures, 2011).
Family-Oriented and Family-Focused Nursing Care
Both family-focused care and family-oriented care are extremely important approaches that are used by nurses to enhance the health condition of the community. Still, family-oriented nursing care presupposes that professionals treat a family as an entity that has particular characteristics and health issues. It discusses a group of relatives without separating them. Nurses use this approach when trying to improve the health of the whole population but not of an individual.
Family-focused care, in its turn, deals with the understanding of the role of family and its members when cooperating with a patient. Nurses focus on the way they can involve relatives in the process of care delivery and discuss how they can prevent or assist the patient in reaching expected health outcomes (Pettoello-Mantovani, Campanozzi, Maiuri, & Giardino, 2009).
Community-Based Services
Different community-based services can be used to improve family health. For example, educational services are expected to enhance the knowledge of the family members about diseases, their symptoms, and treatment. They can also find out how to prevent illnesses and where to go if health issues are faced. Substance abuse treatment, including anonymous meetings, can save many families and improve their health condition because addicted people do not only spoil their health but also affect their relatives adversely. Respite care is very beneficial for families who take care of a relative with serious health issues (Commonwealth of Australia, 2015).
It allows a caregiver to enhance one’s knowledge and obtain support. In addition to that, one can have a rest from long-term care, which reduces emotional pressure. A patient, in this way, receives a chance to interact with other people and maybe obtain care that was not provided. Recreation opportunities can improve one’s physical and mental condition of families (Schwarzenegger, Chrisman, & Coleman, 2005).
References
Commonwealth of Australia. (2015). Respite care. Web.
Pettoello-Mantovani, M., Campanozzi, A., Maiuri, L., & Giardino, I. (2009). Family-oriented and family-centered care in pediatrics. Italian Journal of Pediatrics, 35(1), 12.
Schwarzenegger, A., Chrisman, M., & Coleman, R. (2005). The health and social benefits of recreation. Web.
Bright Futures. (2011). Promoting community relationships and resources. Web.
Children’s Bureau. (2016). Family support services. Web.
Lundy, K., & Janes, S. (2014). Community health nursing. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.