FAMILY HEALTH

Instructor: Mr. Hassan Kafi Abdikadir

MSc Health Care Organization management
Nicosia –Cyprus
 FAMILY HEALTH
Learning objectives
• At the end of this chapter, the students are
expected to:
• Define Family and family health.
• Describe the reason why there is a focus on
family health
 Family
• Family is a social unit composed of group of
individuals who are related by blood or marriage or
adoption, live under the same roof and share a
common kitchen, and/or share common social
responsibilities.
• Such social unit is defined primarily by reference to
relationships which pertain to arise from
reproductive process and which are regulated by law
or custom, especially relationship established
between a couple by marriage and those existing
between a couple as parents and their children.
 Cont.…
• However, it has to be differentiated from
household. Household consists of a group of
individuals who share living quarters, take
their principal meal from the same kitchen,
i.e. live under the same roof, and eat from the
same kitchen. There are two types of house-
holds private households (or family
households) and institutional (or non-family)
households like hostels, jail, et
 Nuclear family
• Nuclear family includes a male and female
couple related by marriage or living together by
common consent, with or without children.
• Extended family is multigenerational and
consists of the nuclear family and relatives of
both parties, whether or not living in close
geographic proximity.
• The extended family provides a broader basis of
mutual support.
 Functions of the family
• Socialization of family members
• Economic stability
• Sexual needs
• Care of dependent members
• Emotional support for members
• Satisfy social, intellectual, emotional and
psychological needs of members.
 Family Health
• Family Health deals with problem of health of the
whole family as a single and fundamental social unit.
• Special and great emphasis is given to family health
since the problems of rapidly growing populations
have important consequences at the family,
community and the national level.
• Problems of maternal, child health and human
reproduction, including family planning, are now
seen as aspects of the greater problem of the health
of the whole family.
 Cont.…
• In developing countries like Ethiopia, families often consist
of large numbers of children born to poorly educated
parents living in poverty.
• The father or less commonly the mother may be absent
for long periods while working in a distant place.
• This can create serious health hazards for all family
members.
• In societies where death of adults occurs from civil wars,
famine, or infectious diseases such as AIDS, raising of
children by single parents, neighbors is common.
• Abandonment of children is also common in such
situations.
 Why do we focus on family health?
• The family structure provides an important
foundation for physical and emotional health of
the individual and the community.
• A healthy family is a basis for a healthy society
and healthy nation.
• Marital and family status and interaction among
family members affect each person's health and
the well being of the community and nations
Family health mainly focuses on maternal
(mother’s) heath and child health.
 Cont.…
• Both at the national level and internationally,
maternal and child health are among the major
priorities with special focus on primary health care,
since women and children have health needs
different form those of the general population.
• Public health must be sensitive to the special needs
of the family by providing appropriate health
promotion, disease prevention, medical care and
support programs for each member of the family
and the family as a whole.
 Maternal health
• Maternal health deals with insuring safe mother
hood for all women of the world.
• This includes care for females starting from their
conception through various stages of growth and
development with special emphasis to women of
childbearing age.
• Here pregnant mothers will get great emphasis
towards care before delivery (prenatal care), care
during labor and delivery (childbirth), and care
after delivery (postnatal care) and family planning.
 Cont.…
• Women’s health issues relate to their many roles: as
individuals, workers, wives, mothers, and daughters.
• This demand for life long responsibilities for
knowledge, self-care, and family leadership in health
related issues, such as nutrition, hygiene, education,
exercise , safety, fertility, child care, and care of the
elderly.
• Changes in the social roles of women create extra
demand and risks in health.
 Family Planning
• It is a conscious effort on the part of a couple
in planning the size of the family and thus
consists of the restrictions of births or
limitation of births either temporarily to
achieve the planned interval between
successive births or permanently to prevent
more births than planned by the usage of
various contraceptive techniques.
 Cont.…
• Family planning and spacing of pregnancy is a vital issue
in developing countries, where the burden of frequent
pregnancies contributes to high maternal and infant
mortality rates.
• It enables women to determine the time, spacing, and
frequency of pregnancy, as well as adoption of children.
• Accordingly, it prevents Too Early (e.g. Teenage), Too
Soon (e.g. Short inter pregnancy interval), Too Many
(e.g. Too many pregnancies and children) and Too Late
(e.g. in older women >35 years) pregnancies.
 Cont.…
• It includes a range of methods for preventing
or terminating pregnancies, while maintaining
a normal sex life.
• Male’s involvement is of paramount
importance in family planning especially in the
decision making.
 Child health
• Public health has long played a major leadership
role in improving the health of children by
provision of care and regulation of conditions to
prevent disease, provide early and adequate care
of illness and promote health.
• Child health includes care for newborns, breast
feeding and feeding practices, Immunization,
growth monitoring and well baby clinics, treatment
of common childhood infections, school health
activities and advocating for the rights of children
 Child health
• Child bearing
• Child health services: nutrition, immunization,
growth monitoring
• Morbidity and mortality of children
• Social problems of children: Child abuse,
abandoned or street children and Child labour
 Determinants of family health
• Living and working conditions
• Physical environment,
• Psycho-social environment
• Education and economic factors
• health practices
• Cultural factors
• Gender etc.
Problems faced by family/social problems

• Broken homes
• Drug abuse
• Disability and rehabilitation
• Unmarried mothers
• Teenage pregnancy
 Benefits of Family Health Care
• They provide care for every member of your family.
• They provide an wide array of medical services
• They know your health history
• They provide referrals for special concerns
• They save you time and money
• They know the importance of the patient-doctor
bond
• Care focused on your healthy future
 Responsibilities of family in health and
disease
• Socialization
• Personality formation
• Care of dependent adult
• Care of sick and injured
• Care of pregnant and childbirth
• Care of aged and handi-capped
• Stabilization of adult personality
• Family susceptibility to diseases
• Broken homes
• Problem family
 Exercise
1- What is family health and why is there a focus
on family health in the health system?
2- List the components of family health
activities?
3- How does family planning contribute to family
health?