'West Side Family Place' and Family Stress Theory

With new knowledge of science, and social sciences, WSFP has become informed about the social determinants of health (2). Understanding social determinants is crucial in addressing societal issues for families because society's environment impacts health outcomes. WSFP is educated in all city family policies and how families can achieve healthy lifestyles. WSFP knows about the impacts of intergenerational trauma, early childhood trauma, and trauma relationships with mental health and substance abuse (2). In knowing these critical factors, WSFP's programs do preventive work that allows families to have long-term healthy lives. WSFP is focused on assisting parents in their early parenthood journeys so they can one day overcome challenges independently. WSFP is always looking to grow and evolve to provide families with comprehensive care in a fast-paced, moving society like Vancouver. In analyzing two theories, we can see and understand why the issues exist and how the theories guide WSFP's work to address the problems of isolation and access to services and knowledge. (2)

The first theory is called the ABC-X Model or Family Stress Theory. The ABC-X Model states that families experience events known as Stressors (A), which can lead a family to crises (X) (1). A crisis results when the family can no longer deal with the stressor and causes the family to be unbalanced (1). The probability of a stressor causing crises is mitigated by the number of resources a family has (B) and the family's perceptions of the stress, C (1). Stressors can be any event that changes the family dynamic, such as isolation and difficulty gaining support from services in WSFP-specific cases. These can cause conflicts, fear, and mental health challenges, causing stress and crises in the family. WSFP wants to alleviate the stressor the family is experiencing and avert crises from occurring. Therefore, the ABC-X Model helps society and WSFP to understand how to address the issue and stressors of isolation and access to support by strengthening resources and creating new ones where they teach parents how to cope with early childhood stressors, bettering their perceptions. First, this is why WSFP focuses on connecting parents with other parents in safe spaces. They build a positive, robust, covid safe resource that provides a place where families can get out of isolation and connect with other community members safely. They also strengthen parents' resources by actively referring them to professionals to address their specific needs of child care, food insecurity, housing, medical, and mental health challenges. Second, in these safe spaces, WSFP encourages and teaches parents about coping strategies and dealing with early childhood difficulties. In teaching parents these skills, they focus on bettering perceptions to mitigate family crises. The ABC-X Model can create solutions by showing the determinants of crises and what causes families to get there. Society can then fix and focus on strengthening resources that decrease crises and help families to adopt better perceptions of stressors so that a fulsome understanding of the issue is achieved and the solutions are beneficial to create change. The ABC-X model also helps us understand that all families deal with stressors and can manage crises through resources and perceptions. Although the ABC-X model and FST are amazing at solving the issues, it falls short of explaining how and why some families still enter crises compared to others with the same amount of resource and perception strength. Combining Ecological Theory with the knowledge that resources and perceptions need to be bettered, we can better understand how to help vulnerable families who need more assistance based on various levels. 

So check out the Ecological Theory! This will be explored in our next post! 

References:

1. Alexander, A. (2023). Family Stress Theory [PowerPoint slides].UBC Canvas. Retrieved April 19, 2023, from https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/109981/files/25032454?module_item_id=5389262  

2. Alexander, A., & West Side Family Place WSFP. (n.d.). West Side Family Place. other. Retrieved April 2023, from audio1252567768-1.m4a.