Social Summary Format

From my work in social services, I've translated our family assessments to work for character sketches.  Feel free to use something like this to organize your info and to highlight the areas you have already included in the story so you get it all in without accidentally duplicating and so the info is not contradicting itself in different parts  of the story. 

You don't have to put something in every area but it might help to add details to this while you are writing so you remember what you wrote about the family or parents' family.


INFORMATION FROM THE CASE RECORD
1.          FAMILY DESCRIPTION / SETTING (There were four but the other three were pertaining to past social services history and what
                caused them to come to the attention of social services-If you are writing about an orphan in the system or maybe a child who
                had been adopted to explain what happened to the birth family, you could put this back in).

Is character the parent or child in this write-up?
Number of children/siblings in family
Is this a foster home, adoptive home, two kids-married parents-picket fence in the suburbs setting-an apartment in NY with a single mom and two kids and a drunk boyfriend, etc. 

INFORMATION FROM THE FAMILY AND OTHER PERTINENT INDIVIDUALS
1.          PARENT / CAREGIVER FUNCTIONING           (Could also be about Character's Parents even if Char is an adult)
                (SEE CHILD SECTION FOR EXPLANATIONS OF EACH CATEGORY)
    Indented area below was added for Fiction/writing purposes IF this is a character in the story. 
    Move this to child's section if this is just background info about the character's family and the family doesn't appear in the story:
    The child and adult sections are the same, so you can just make a sheet for every character and not worry about the child vs. adult
    section but it still is good to go up one generation at least, even if the person isn't in the story. 
          Name:
          Age:
          Physical Description/hair/eye/distinguishing features, etc.
          Flaws/strengths-
          Can add other info usually in a character sketch here.

Family History

Parents' Disciplinary or childrearing techniques/beliefs

Educational History And Intellectual Development

Employment / Vocational History          

Relevant Medical Background, Diagnoses,And Physical Development

Psychological / Psychiatric Treatment History And Emotional Development

Diagnoses (Psychological)

Military Service History          

Legal History          

Alcohol / Drug Use History

Description / Summary Of Significant Issues Being Experienced By The Parent

Additional Information

2.          CHILD FUNCTIONING            (Or could be about the charactor  (adult or child)
                if above info is about the character's parents or guardians)
   
    Indented area below was added for Fiction/writing purposes IF this is a character in the story. 
    Move this to child's section if this is just background info about the character's family and the family doesn't appear in the story:
    The child and adult sections are the same, so you can just make a sheet for every character and not worry about the child vs. adult
    section but it still is good to go up one generation at least, even if the person isn't in the story. 
          Name:                                                                              Age:
          Parent/Guardian's name (s):                                                Children's Names:
          Physical Description/hair/eye/distinguishing features, etc.
          Flaws/strengths-
          Can add other info usually in a character sketch here.

Family History (married/divorced or child of that situation-who they live with, etc. and significant events, immigrations, traumas, natural 
    disasters, multiple moves all over country-what is special about family unit?)

Parents' Disciplinary or childrearing techniques/beliefs (ie Beatings okay, No spankings at all, somewhere in between,
            Torture or emotional abuse, etc. )  Can include multigenerational beliefs in here also (Grandparents did X,
            parents did Y or did X too, just like their parents). 

Educational History And Intellectual Development
    Include grade they are in or grade they quit school.  Also can include ADHD or learning problems here if impacting the story. 
    For purposes of writing fiction, are they genius underacheivers, straight A students who have to work hard to get it,
    A -students without effort, "type" of role played in school (rebel, socialite, flunkie, druggie, perfect girl, strange one, goth, etc), etc,

Employment / Vocational History           (Current job/parent's jobs).  If extreme job or dangerous job, how does it impact child (ren)

Relevant Medical Background And Physical Development and Medical Diagnoses (Can include Autism here, although also could be
    under psych or Educational.  Add families' reaction and coping mechanisms if chronic illness of parent or kid.


Psychological / Psychiatric Treatment History And Emotional Development 
    Psychological Diagnoses (DSM-V)  (Most freq.  ADHD (we all know but mainly concentration or hyper issues), Bipolar (extreme moods), 
    Personality Disorders (more in common with loners/histrionic/behavioral issues that don't respond to meds), Adjustment disorders, Post
    Traumatic Stress Disorder and Anxiety issues, Depression, etc. 

Military Service History  (N/A if child)          If a child, though, how does parents' military service affect them, frequent moves,
      authoritarian or verbally abusive parent, separation from parent while at war, living with relatives (mean or wonderful grandma
      or even foster home and if extended family member-do they want the child or feel it is a burden?)

Legal History          
    Also include juvenile offenses or if they were/are a "troubled kid" ie if not in "juvie" already, heading that way.
    For "psychopath in horror/suspense-might want to include the habit of killing defenseless animals in this section or other clues that this kid
    was heading toward the life of a serial killer or whatever other horror they might commit.  Did anyone suspect it back then? 

Alcohol / Drug Use History
    If an issue, include how they or parents/kids act when drunk/on drugs-chatty cathy when drunk or mean abusive or loner drunk/drugs. 
    Also, if the character him/herself is on drugs/alc-how do the family members deal with them?

Description / Summary Of Significant Issues Being Experienced By The Child
    For writing purposes, this could be the current crisis, mission, what the person is worried about, in other words,
    "To do or not to do, that is the question" or should they or should they not ?????.  It is what the person is worried about, not what everyone
    else is worried about regarding the character.  (ie Joe's parents may be worried about whether or not he is going to get into a good
    college but Joe is worried about his girlfriend dumping him or the police finding out what he and his friends did to the 

Additional Information
   


3.          FAMILY FUNCTIONING
Either family of origin or current family. How well do they operate their lives among others around them-do they frequently need social services, do they get evicted often, to they fight all the time, any "FAMILY SECRETS" that they protect as a family, etc.  How well or not well do they do in comparison to how they were raised?



4.          THE FAMILY’S COMMUNITY
Type of neighborhood, closeness of neighborhood, church involvement, rich/poor/middle class area, attitudes about own vs. other cultural backgrounds, prejudices, etc.





If you don't use this for character development, maybe it will just give you some prompts or ideas.  We are all products or our raising or "anti-how we were raised" and characters are far more than just their appearances and motivations.  Good luck!

SWPoet
this form was loosely modified using old Comprehensive Family Assessment forms used in Alabama prior to our new computer forms.  Please don't try to use this for publication.  I'm putting it here for personal use only.