Assignemnt 2: Genetics Assignment



Assignemnt 2: Genetics Assignment

Genogram

A genogram is a tool for tracking family history and relationships. It provides a detailed pictorial display of a family or group that goes beyond a family tree in that it contains information about genealogy and different types of relationships - familial and not. A genogram depicts inter-generational family maps to provide a picture of what is occurring across families and across generations, providing a broad framework with which to view family, emotional and social relationships.

Monica McGoldrick, a family therapist, together with colleagues at the Multicultural Family Institute (2008) of New Jersey created the genogram as a diagnostic tool, and as a method for helping families recognise patterns in their past and present. Genograms were popularised by Monica McGoldrick and Randy Gerson with the publication of their first book in 1985, Genograms in Family Assessment. Leading up to publication, the North American Primary Care Research Group in collaboration with leading family therapists had agreed on symbols and a standardised format. Prior to this there had been no generally agreed upon format (Smith 1997, cited in McGoldrick, Gerson, & Petry, 2008, p. 31). McGoldrick and her colleagues realised that the tool was becoming more widely used and that the book would provide a practical guide on the use of genograms, showing the growing diversity of family forms and patterns and the application of genograms in clinical practice.

Genograms have been used for the last four decades as a tool for mapping family patterns and the psychological factors that interrupt relationships. They allow a practitioner to identify and understand repetitive patterns of behaviour and to recognise hereditary tendencies; hence genograms are popular with healthcare professionals in areas such as social work, psychology, psychiatry, genealogy, genetic research, education and many more fields. Other information may be contained in a genogram depending on what people want to know; for example, if the purpose of a genogram is to map the medical history of a family the genogram might include information such as hereditary patterns, genetics and psychological patterns Clinical uses of genograms include gaining insight into clients' psyche (Watchel, 1982); as a data gathering device on individuals and families (Hartman, 1977; Jolly, Froom & Rosen, 1980; Kramer, 1985; Milhorn, 1981; Rogers & Durkin, 1984; Sproul & Gallagher, 1982) as an assessment tool (Hartman, 1977; Kramer, 1985; McGoldrick & Gerson, 1985) and as a training tool (Bahr, 1990).

As a clinical record genograms provide an effective overview that allows a person who is not familiar with the family to attain a lot of information about them in a very short time, thus enabling the clinician to scan for potential problems and resources. This information can be updated to provide a chronological record of key developments (McGoldrick, et al., 2008).

In terms of theoretical understandings, the method is widely used as a framework for understanding family patterns by tracking family history and relationships. In whanau ora, wellness for an individual is not created in isolation; hence the relevance of ...