Reference no: EM133348552
Assignment:
Introduction
Teresa is a 35-year-old Asian-American woman. She lives in Rancho Cordova, California with her husband, Sam, and their 3 children. She currently works as an engineer at a company in Sacramento.
Cultural Background
Teresa's parents came to the United States in 1975 from Vietnam, where her father was a translator for the US Army during the Vietnam conflict. Her family lives in Los Angeles, California, where her parents have a successful retail business. One of 3 children, she was the first of her family to graduate from college.She attended California State Polytechnic University, where she majored in Construction Engineering and Management. After graduating from college, she obtained an engineering position and moved to Sacramento. Teresa remembers her mother's traditional healing practices and beliefs regarding health and disease. Even today, her mother continues to believe that illness is caused by an imbalance between inner and outer forces and the goal is to restore this balance. As a result, Teresa's mother continues to use various foods, herbal supplements and other traditional methods to reduce symptoms and restore the body's balance. Teresa finds herself using some of these methods for herself and her family, often in conflict with Sam's family.
Family Life
Teresa met her husband soon after moving to Sacramento. Both she and her husband shared a love for running. Her husband, Sam, is a firefighter/paramedic. They married 8 years ago and have 3 children: 2 girls, ages 6 and 3, and a boy, 8 months old. Sam comes from a large Irish-American family who live nearby. For the past year, Sam has been on disability due to a back injury. Although he can handle most of the child care, he has difficulty cooking, and Teresa not only cooks, but also often works overtime to meet the family's financial responsibilities. Sam's mother tries to help out as much as she can with cooking and child care, although she has very different views on child-rearing from Teresa and Sam. Teresa's parents come to visit every couple months. Teresa feels much more comfortable with her mom handling the cooking than she does when Sam's mother cooks, and she feels more relaxed during those visits.
Health and Wellness
An avid runner, Teresa has seen her ability to run every day halted since the birth of her youngest child. She remarks that this has affected her emotional, mental, and physical health tremendously. Although her husband is currently at home and is taking care of the children full time, Teresa still feels responsible for planning and cooking family meals-which allows little time for her daily runs. Currently, Teresa is not sleeping well as she is still nursing the youngest child. She states in addition to not being able to run every day, she always feels tired and seems to be more emotional than prior to the birth of her child.
Health Concerns
At her annual physical, she was informed that she had an elevated blood pressure and was encouraged to lose weight. Teresa came to the wellness clinic hoping to receive assistance in achieving a more balanced, healthier lifestyle. In an ideal world, Teresa would like to get 8 hours of sleep, eat more nutritional foods and get back to running every day
Now let's apply the module notes and readings to the case study by responding to the following prompts:
- Referring to the wellness continuum, what dimensions of wellness are issues for Teresa? Provide examples from the case to support your answer.
- The transtheoretical model of behavior involves 5 stages of change. Identify the stage of readiness you believe Teresa is in. Provide examples to support your answer.
- Utilizing the SMART goal-setting model, write one goal and identify the activities Teresa could attempt this week.
- Discuss why models are important in furthering our understanding of health and wellness.