The activities of the Family Health Program have posed many challenges. One of these challenges is exemplified in a need for developing theoretical propositions that guide the praxis of family health and foster analysis of its practices. The Bronfenbrenner ecological approach of human development and the health care model are presented as viable theoretical tools for the Family Health Program. Examples extracted from reports of users and professionals of health services are used to illustrate relevant constructs. Different levels of ecological comprehension can be identified in these examples in which the family occupies a fundamental role on the three approaches and complemented it as informant, object of care and of self-care.
Health Family Program; ecological model; health surveillance