Case Study

One NYC family's struggle to survive on a fast food salary (8m 44s)
- You will want to take sufficient notes to be able to create a bioecological model of Shenita's life. We will compare notes shortly.
After considering Shenita from a Bioecological Model of Human Development, watch this recording from Dr. Cassie and compare your notes with hers.

Genograms

At the most basic level, genograms resemble family trees, but they go beyond simply listing people in an individual's family. Genograms are full of symbols indicating the gender of an individual, his or her health status, and whether or not an individual is alive or deceased. Lines indicate relationships and can represent marriage, divorce, affairs, friendship, and abuse among others. At a glance, genograms can be used to identify generational trauma or health problems. Practitioners often create genograms in session with clients using pen and paper. It is not necessary to purchase software to complete genograms. In fact, many discourage creation in software programs as it takes away from the interaction between the social work practitioner and client in their creation. Genograms can be a valuable tool to help individuals learn more about their families and the unique dynamics at play in them.

Here is a good legend of genogram symbols.

Please note, it is not necessary to purchase special software to make genograms or ecomaps for this class. You will be asked to complete a genogram in an upcoming assignment. It is acceptable to create them with a pen on a piece of paper and attach a photo with your assignment.

Think about Shenita again. Take a few minutes to draw an ecomap based on the information we have about her. Below is a photo of the genogram I created for Shenita. We didn't have a lot of medical information about Shenita's family and we didn't have any drug or alcohol information to include. In this case, all we knew were the people living in her home. How did your genogram for Shenita compare to mine?

Genogram for Shenita Simon's case

Ecomaps

While genograms illustrate an individual's family, ecomaps provide an image of the immediate family and other systems in which the family interacts. Symbolism is important in ecomaps and genograms, but the symbolism can vary. For this reason, when creating a genogram or ecomap it is important to include a legend. Lines indicate different types of relationships and arrows indicate the direction of those relationships.

Here is a good template to use when creating ecomaps. While this is a good template, it does not include arrows. Note in the diagram appearing at the top of this page the relationship between Gloria and healthcare. The arrows going from Gloria to healthcare indicate she provides some level of support to the healthcare system and the arrows moving from healthcare to Gloria represent what Gloria is receiving from the healthcare community. In this case, it appears to be a reciprocal relationship.

Take a moment to create an ecomap based on Shenita. When you have finished, see how your ecomap compares to the one I created for her. Below is my ecomap. I provided you with three photos to demonstrate the process I used to create this ecomap.

Note some relationships, like the relationship between WIC and Shenita are relationships between the program and the family. Others, like the relationship between Medicaid and the children, are links between systems and people within the system. How did your ecomap of Shenita's household compare to mine? How did they differ?