Family eco-map: what is it, characteristics and how to do it

In social sciences and health sciences, it is often necessary to know in which environment the family of the patient or patients lives in order to know what the origin of their problem is.

Both the other members of the family and their interaction with the sociocultural environment that has touched them living can motivate different intra- and interrelational dynamics that lead to problems for their members.

A good way to know how a family relates to its environment are family eco-maps., tools that we are going to discover next.

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What is a family eco-map?

Among the multiple instruments to evaluate individuals, families and communities in the health and social branches applied to the family environment is the ecomap. The family eco-map is a tool that allows us to appreciate the structure of a family and what connections there are between its members, also exposing what is the extra-family support, if it exists or is absent instead.

These tools are developed as a graphic representation to quickly identify the family's interrelationships with the environment and its sociocultural context.

The ecomaps They are made when a family is evaluated with the intention of knowing that there is a mutual influence between it as a social unit and the other systems with which it is related, be it the extended family, health systems, educational centers, neighbors, the neighborhood, friends of the family ...

Based on its definition, we can understand that it has a certain resemblance to the familiogram or genogram, only instead of focusing solely and exclusively to the family, it also shows its external relationships, the main characteristic that differentiates it from genograms. However, like familiograms, family ecomaps are easy tools to develop. Added to this, they have a wide applicability and serve to plan, evaluate and intervene with families seeing how they relate to other social nuclei.

Utilities and functions of the family ecomap

The family eco-map presents certain facilities to the family therapist when treating a family nucleus and understanding what possible problems are occurring within. Among the utilities of the main family ecomaps we have:

• Quickly identify extrafamily resources that act as a protection factor.
• Detect shortcomings in the family.
• Work on the aspects that are weak or absent in the family relationship.
• Detect problems in family dynamics.
• Detect cases of family isolation due to migration and other problems with their community.

How to carry out an ecomap?

To create an ecomap we need at least a paper and a pencil or pen, in addition to the information provided by the family and that which we have observed both in its internal relational dynamics and with systems external to it.

To carry out the ecomap we can follow the following 4 steps.

Step 1. Prepare the familiogram

We draw a circle in the center of the family. Within this circle we will create a small familiogram, that is, the members that make up the reference family unit. Although it is possible that grandparents, uncles, cousins ​​or other second and third degree relatives acquire an important weight in the family unit studied, as a general rule we will focus on the most central family, that is, the couple and their respective children.

When making this small family tree, it is necessary to know that men are represented with squares and women with circles. Marriages are represented by connecting the spouses with two vertical lines and one horizontal, from which the couple's children are connected. with their respective vertical lines.

The sons are represented by squares, and the daughters by circles. In the case of a pregnant woman, the unborn child is represented by a triangle. If there have been abortions, they are represented either with a black dot (spontaneous) or with an X (provoked). The twins are represented by two lines that emerge from the horizontal line at the same point.

If it is a marriage the line is continuous, if it is a premarital union the line is broken and if it is a question of a separated or divorced couple, the horizontal line is "cut" with one or two lines in diagonal. If a parent has custody of one of the children the diagonals are drawn near the parent who does not. In case the custody is shared, the diagonals are drawn in half.

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Step 2. Add personal information

In case we have more information and enough space, we can write the names, dates of birth, date of marriage, separation and / or divorce, deaths and any other family event important. Information related to particular individuals can go within or together with their symbols, while the details of the relationships between the family members will be indicated on the line that the connect.

Step 3. Draw the external systems

Having already prepared the familiogram, we proceed to consider what external systems influence the family or its members. These systems can be of all kinds, and those that are significant for the family nucleus and that significantly influence it should always be considered.

Work, school, church, friends, the neighborhood, the health system are some examples of external systems that can be of great importance to the evaluated family. Each of these external systems will be represented with their corresponding circles around the main circle.

Step 4. Represent external influences

Once we have decided which are the most important external systems, it is time to relate them to the main family unit. For it we are going to connect them to the central circle, either as a set or to specific individuals in case they are especially meaningful to specific family members.

These connections are represented in different ways depending on the type of influence they exert. For example, a solid line represents a strong connection; two or three solid lines represent a strong connection; a dashed or dotted line represents a rather modest connection and a wavy or broken line represents a conflicting connection.

To offer more information, arrows can be used at the ends of each line, which will represent the directionality of the energy between the connections. An arrow pointing towards a family member can be placed if the family member is influenced by the external system and, if the arrow is placed on the external system, this means that it is the family member that connects it who influences the same. The arrows on both sides represent a mutual influence between the connected elements.