Family members become enmeshed and sometimes depressed as there is no new input to energise relationships and thinking. Eco-maps provide a clear visual representation of the state of boundaries within a family unit and highlight where a worker may need to encourage parents to allow more openness and input so individual members can develop relationships both external to the family as well as internal.
If a family unit remains closed, there is the risk that it may disintegrate altogether. Eco-maps also help you to analyze whether the level and type of support the family is receiving from health, welfare, employment and other services is adequate and appropriate for their needs.
Eco-maps can highlight deficits in service delivery, duplication of service delivery or a lack of co-ordinated service delivery. Simple Guide to Eco-Maps Eco-maps, like genograms are a visual tool that can provide very useful information for workers and clients in the process of developing case plans. Eco-maps are a visual map of a family's connections to the external world. They provide a useful tool for assessment of family, social and community relationships and highlight the quality of these connections.
They give workers a comprehensive picture of: the family dynamics - relationships that are nurturing or conflictual; each individual family members connections to social support systems. For example: housing support, income support, counselling, justice programs etc and the quality of these connections; each individual family members connections to their community.
For example: significant friends, neighbours, sports clubs, spiritual influences - and the quality of these connections; the whole family unit's level of connectedness to the external world; areas of deprivation where resources may need to be mobilized or strengthened; and areas of service duplication.
Drawing an Eco-map Use a white board or a large piece of paper and draw a large circle in the centre. Conclusion: Ecomapping is a valuable research tool because it provides visual representation of supportive care networks, capturing strategic data through symbols expressing relationships that may be inadequately portrayed in words.
The ecomap incorporates the use of consistent symbols that standardize recipient responses, enabling data comparisons to be made. Abstract Aim: This paper explores the use of ecomaps as a research tool for capturing data, using the example of the dynamic nature of social networks from which informal carers of people living with motor neurone disease draw their support.
Publication types Research Support, Non-U. Remember me on this computer. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. Need an account? Click here to sign up. Download Free PDF. Beth Rous. Teri Nowak. A short summary of this paper. Download Download PDF. Translate PDF. Traditional tools such as surveys and standardized measures of providing a family support, empowerment, and mental health are being used to understand family status and to gain information about child and family functioning prior to graphic image of and after transition.
In addition to these tools, NECTC is using a procedure bor- the family sys- rowed from the social sciences - the ecomap. The eco-map was developed in tem within the by sociologist Ann Hartman to help social workers in public child welfare larger social ma- practice better understand the needs of the families with whom they worked trix.
It illustrates how families exist within the context of their relation- ships with other individuals and institutions with which the family has contact. Util- conversational izing an ecological model Bronfenbrenner, , the eco-map provides a visual approach to family display of any group of interconnections and relationships, providing a graphic information image of the family system within the larger social matrix. In our work we use only circles but accessed by the circles for females and squares for males are the standard symbol convention.
Other researchers also report the use of metaphoric symbols or faces to repre- family. Katherine McCormick cle. The family then is asked to think about the informal supports currently avail- University of Kentucky able to them. Examples of these supports may be grandparents, neighbors, and church members.
A separate circle is drawn for each of the extended family mem- Dr. Sarintha Stricklin bers, friends, neighbors, and others named as current supports by the family. The type and frequency of these informal support systems are critical to the infor- University of Kentucky mation gathering process with families.
Therefore, each of the circles is labeled and additional information solicited about how each person or group relates to the Dr. The family member also is asked to share the frequency of the support provided by this person e. Hodge , p. A dashed line represents the most tenuous relationship, while a jagged line denotes a con- flicted one.
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