Reciproz Family: Case Study Of The Lopez Family

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The Lopez family is going through a very distressful situation. There are 5 members in this family. The children are young adults and the parents are in middle age. It is a family with deeply rooted moral and religious values. “José” is a 22 year old young man, who recently was diagnosed HIV positive. He is close to his mother and brothers, but not to his father. He has an enthusiastic and friendly personality. Jose is the first born out of three to his parents. His father, “Carlos” 50 year old is a hardworking man with temperamental personality; especially when it comes to his sons. Although he is a good father; he is really strict with his children. He expects them to be better than him. He works in a factory as a supervisor. He and his wife To do this I will use Systems Perspective. This perspective “Sees human behavior as the outcome of reciprocal interactions of persons operating within linked systems” (Hutchinson, 2011 pg.38). According to this perspective, it seems like every member of the family knows what their role is. Carlos takes seriously its role as “the man of the house”. Which sometimes stresses him a little bit; since he feels that he does not provide enough because sometimes they have money problems. Therefore he feels that his role as the man of the house is not being fulfill. Is common that in most Hispanic families the man is the one that has to provide for everything; other ways he is not a “macho”. Martha, who also works to help Carlos; is the loving wife and mother who tries to keep the family together. She is kind of permissive with her sons. She believes that since they are males they can do wherever they want. Also she considers that is okay for them to go out and enjoy their lives as long as they are responsible with work and keep on going to school. She is especially over permissive with Jose. Sometimes Carlos thinks that she spoils them a lot and that that is not doing them any good. This situation sometimes creates conflict between them. Moreover the relationship between Martha and Carlos is good. The Lopez family holds an open system. Which allows Carlos and The success or failure of this process will depend on personal and/or social resources that the person/family possess. Due to Jose does not feel ready yet to disclose his HIV status to the rest of his family is causing Martha to take all the emotional and economic burden of this situation. Which is causing that the relationship between her, Carlos and his sons deteriorates. Also she feels depressed and isolated from the rest of the family. She fears that if they find out about Jose’s HIV status, they are going to stigmatize her and her family. “HIV- affected caregivers can suffer from associative HIV stigma- by Goffman (1963), which can leave them isolated, hidden, fearful, and stressed” ( Lesser et al., 1995; Mellins & Ehrhardt,

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