Stress has many health impacts on one’s physical and mental health. The health effects of stress range from minor to major issues. Simple health issues like headaches, stomach upsets, rashes, loss of hair, increasing heart beat rates and muscle aches all result from stress. It is vital to note that stress is individualized and a stress trigger in one person may not be a trigger in a different person. Psychological stress plays a huge role in triggering physical symptoms and disease processes. Medical research done by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shows that ninety percent of all illnesses are in some way, related to stress. Further research shows that stress lowers immunity and this increases the susceptibility of our bodies to infections. However, this is not the end for people who have stress and are suffering from stress-related illnesses. Stress reduction exercise like massages help increase the number of T-cells in the body where endorphins are release to prevent diseases.
Many non-communicable diseases are as a result of stress. Heath disease and high blood pressure develop as a result of long-term stress. These are diseases that affect people in the community and the nation. This shows that stress affects the health facility and the people around us. A lot of money is spent yearly in search of treatment for these serious health issues. The number of live lost every year due to this issue is big yet there are measures like massaging that can help reduce the chances of death among those affected. Obesity is another serious problem affecting Americans. Most of the people in this area are affected by either one of these diseases; hence the need to come up with an intervention program that will deal with these issues. Stress affects many people, and one can see its effect in the way people are conducting many terminal diseases over time. Young people are at risk of developing diseases that have in the past been associated with older people. The impact on the community is high. A lot of money is spent finding treatment yet most of the diseases are incurable. People become dependent on other families members as they are incapacitated due to the effects of stress.
In order to avoid most of these health problems, and save people the money they spend in hospitals, it is vital to adapt to new ways of reducing stress. Stress affects people of all ages, but it is profound in adults as their immune system is low and they are easily affected by stress.
It is vital to adapt stress reduction strategies in order to improve physical health. The Healthy People 2020 objectives provides that people should work together to empower people to make important decisions that will prevent illnesses. It is important to take on preventive measures rather than work on treatment plans for non-curable diseases that arise due to stress. It is vital according to the objectives of Healthy People 2020 to create public awareness that will help people understand some of the key causes of health issues. Identifying ways of preventing these illnesses such as stress reduction through massage is one of the ways to achieve this. To do this, it is vital to work together with the community and the existing community response like Working Together to eradicate non-communicable diseases, local exercise teams and health improvement programs implemented by various health facilities around the area. There are many initiatives by local communities and health institution to try and educate people on the effects of stress on their lives. Health education and promotion programs are being used by health stakeholders to pass information to the public. So far, these strategies have been fruitful in changing the view of the local people towards stress and its effect on their health.
Project Planning
The project underway is on stress reduction and improvement of physical health through massage. The main feature of the project is to come up with a collaborative environment where information about stress will be passed on the relevant groups. This will help makes things simpler when it comes to the implementation phase of the project. The first thing that has to be done is to identify the common health problems in the surrounding community. It is vital to have data on the common illnesses reported in the health facility. This will help in coming up with a practical plan that will address the key health issue. It will also provide direction on what needs to be addressed by the project in terms of health issues in the community that are directly related to stress. To get the data, focus needs to be on the health records in the facility that will give an oversight of the illnesses. Analysis of the data will be solely on how the data can be linked to stress (Birnie, Speca, & Carlson, 2010).
The next step would be to get details about come up with measures that would help solve stress issues among the community members. This is vital as it is the heart of the project. The success of the project depends on the execution ability and measurability of these solutions. The first thing that will need to be implemented is an education program targeting people identified to be at risk during the first stage of the project. Volunteers who have massaging skills will also get an education on the importance of massage to reduce stress and improve physical health. Nurses willing to collaborate in the project will also take part in the education program. After this, the next step would be to involve everyone who will participate in the project to come up with what they will need for the project. This will provide an overview of the resources reviewed for the project. All the suggestions will be collected and evaluated before a final list of the resources is compiled (Braun, Stanguts, Casanelia, Spitzer, Paul, Vardaxis, 2012).
Implementation of the program will begin after all the resources have been collected. This will go on for one month where the volunteers will be visiting various sites identified to have relaxing features. The evaluation process will begin after twenty days since the implementation of the project. The pretest of the project would be the number of people taking medication on a daily basis due to ailments like headaches, backaches and stomach aches. The people under long-term medication for stress will also be the target. The people will report how they feel at the beginning of the day before the massage and later on after the massage. Those with impulse to feed on junk to deal with stress will also be a target. The post test will focus on the number of people who have been receiving a massage who will go to a health facility to get medication for simple problems like stomach upsets, headaches and backaches. Those under medication for stress will report how they feel when they receive the massage. Those with an impulse to feed on junk will be asked how they have been dealing with stress since they began receiving the massage.
Lesson plan
Venue: Community
Objectives:
- Increase the community’s awareness on the role of stress in triggering health problems
- Educate the community on various stress reduction strategies including massages
- Collaborate with community members, nurses and massage parlors to offer massage sessions to community members identified to be having stress.
- Ensure that the community members adapt ways including massages that will improve their physical health and reduce stress though collaborative efforts.
Time frame
30th June-2nd July 2014
- 8:00am-5:00pm- collection of data and analysis to identify common stress-related illnesses and susceptible community members
3rd July- 4th July 2014
- 9:00am- 3:30pm- education session with practical to perfect message moves to aid in elevate stress among community members
6th July-7th July
- 8:00am- 5:00 pm- education programs targeting community members with massages given to those who agree to have them after listening to various health facts.
8th – 31st July
- 8:00- 5:00pm- massage and education programs
20th- 25th July
- Evaluation of the project
Implementation of the project
The project requires collaboration with community members who are the main people affected by stress. The implementation process will be immediate once all the resources have been identified and acquired. Educating the public on the various effects of stress on their physical health went a long way in helping them identify the reasons for their increased visits to a health facility. The aim of this project is to help people live longer through various initiatives that do not entail taking medication. Massages provide a nice relaxing way that helps reduce stress and in the long run improve physical health.
Collaboration with nurses and other health officers in the agency provided a good platform to engage the community. The locals trust people they are used to seeing when they visit the health facilities. This made it easier to create a rapport with them than it would be without the local health personnel. The people giving massages were also from the local community and they were able to relate well with the people giving them the massage.
There are many joints in the community that offered a good place to implement the project. Explaining the details and benefits of the project to the owners gave them an insight of the project and most were willing to have massage sessions conducted by the team members to be held at their parlors. Health facilities were also some of the places used for massage sessions for patients visiting the facility with stress-related illness. It was vital to make people understand that though they were having a good time and feeling well, the massages were offering them a good chance to live healthy and stronger than they would lying in bed or watching TV.
The project was a success as people came out to learn about stress reduction and physical health improvement through massages. Those who have been visiting various health facilities received massages on a daily basis with a total of 30 people being massaged on a daily basis in the 5 sites used for the project. A health worker is in charge of each of the sites and reports back on the progress of the project. Education is done daily with new community members coming in an offering to give assistance and participate in any way they can (Birnie, Speca, & Carlson, 2010). The project will be overseen by a registered nurse who has been part of the project from its initial stages. She has enough experience with various health issues affecting the community, and being from the area, she has a deep understanding and connection to the locals. She will report to the agency and oversee the project and monitor its progress.
Evaluation of the project
The project was a success as it achieved its main objectives. The outcomes of the project had been measured using pretest and posttest that aimed at measuring the effect of massage on reducing stress and improving physical health. The health facility pre-test statistics showed that 10 people visited it daily to complain about simple ailments like headaches that were stress related. Post-tests showed that only four people visited the facility meaning that adapting massage as a stress reduction technique worked for the locals. Those undertaking long term stress medication reported that they felt relaxed after the massage, and felt life was easier now than it was before the massages begun. This shows that the project has been a success, and people are embracing the use of massage as a way of eliminating stress and increasing their physical fitness.
I would recommend to stakeholders in the health sector and in particular the agency to work on promoting the use of preventable strategies instead of focusing on treating diseases. There are a lot of things that people can do to change their health status, and taking part in relaxing activities such as massage. People should be encouraged through health education and health promotion programs to play an active role in improving their health status (Younis, 2006).
The presentation went as planned and nothing would have been done differently under the circumstances.
References
Birnie, K., Speca, M., & Carlson, L. E. (2010). Exploring self-compassion and empathy in the context of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). Stress and Health, 26(5), 359- 371.
Braun, L., Stanguts, C., Casanelia, L., Spitzer, O., Paul, E., Vardaxis, N., et al. (2012). OA09.03. Stress reduction using massage in cardiac surgery patients. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 12(Suppl 1), O35.
Huntley, A. (2010). Short-term reduction of stress, anxiety and depression with massage for breast cancer patients. Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies, 15(3), 254- 255.
Plews-Ogan, M., Owens, J. E., Goodman, M., Wolfe, P., & Schorling, J. (2005). BRIEF REPORT: A Pilot Study Evaluating Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction And Massage For The Management Of Chronic Pain. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 20(12), 1136-1138.
Younis, N. (2006). Assembly stress for the reduction of stress concentration. Mechanics Research Communications, 33(6), 837-845.
