Personal and Population Stress Management Plan
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Personal and Population Stress Management Plan
Stress is defined as the mental tension that results from factors that alter an existing status quo or equilibrium. Stress is also defined as the body’s response that is nonspecific when any demand made upon it. Stress can help since it is a natural defense mechanism but it can also hinder because it causes fatigue when it is something that one has to cope up daily. Stressors are triggers that cause the stress response. Stress management refers to development and use of techniques to help an individual cope up with stress or reduce its effects. Stress can be divided into two categories, eustress, which is an enhancing and positive stress that motivates and distress is a category of stress associated with anxiety.
Personal Stress Management
I made an inventory of all possible stressors that I could think of and scored myself on a scale of 1 to 5 using Table 1.
Source:
Source: Helpguide.org
Set my goals by deciding what I want to accomplish.
Inventory the signs and symptoms that are effecting me now
Establish the success criteria that I will accept
Inventory the resources that I have available to me.
Decide on what my blocks are for success
Devise a plan of action, do a practice run and document it.
Refer to Table 3 for my stress management plan
Specific things I would do to reduce stress. Since my classwork cannot be reduced, I will have to prioritize it. I will have to negotiate the deadlines for any other work or simply reject them. By staying at a location that is far off, I can get better living conditions as well as save money. I can come to school by cycle and that would be a good exercise. I will park the environmental issues for now and revisit them once I am successful with the other issues.
Coping skills I would use. I do deep breathing exercises before every stressful event. I will also listen to relaxing music while studying so that I can avoid stress. I might occasionally go out with a friend.
One behavior I would change. The one behavior that I would change is my habit of procrastination. To do this, I would start making a checklist complete the tasks based on the checklist. I will use motivating techniques like, positive reinforcement for completing items and negative reinforcement for not completing the items. I will break large tasks down and set deadlines for the smaller tasks so that I can feel a sense of accomplishment on completing each task. This will be good for motivation. If needed, I will take approach others seeking help to complete the task. I will make my agenda public so that I will complete the tasks due to societal pressure.
Change I would expect. In the short term, that is six weeks, I see myself completing all my old tasks and having none of them pending. I can see myself stress free due that. I can visualize myself accepting invitations to parties because my calendar if free. I also see my friends and lecturers giving me more respect because I am keeping my schedules.
Rationale for my plan
My first step was goal setting and it is a very important step. Goal setting helps me by giving me a target against which I can plan and measure my success or failure. Proper goal setting can be a motivator and I have used it to break down large tasks into small tasks so that I am not overwhelmed. My next step to inventory the stressors and symptoms will help me find out about myself. I will be able to know what needs to be given higher priority. Using the Figure 2 in Appendix A, I found my score to be 45, which leads me to the conclusion that I was am a victim of occupational stress. If I had not done this exercise, I would still be searching for the cause for my sleepiness and fatigue. Once I realized that I was suffering from stress, I began my efforts to identify my stressors based on the symptoms. This helped me find the underlying causes that caused me stress. I then decided to focus on the top five stressors as they were causing me the most distress. This prioritization helped me further. The next step was to identify which category my stressors belonged to and adopt appropriate stress relieving techniques listed in Table 2.
Deciding on the success criteria, which is my next step, is important for any project. This will help me measure my success and enable me to make course corrections. The next step, which is inventorying resources available to me, will help me in identifying primary and secondary resources that I can use in the process of implementing this stress management plan. The resources could be memories of situations that make me feel good or relaxed. These memories can be used by visualization techniques to help me relax when I am stressed. Next step was to find out what is blocking me from attaining success. Both fear of failure (due to low self-esteem) and fear of success are the blocks. I realized that success could mean the end of sympathy that I get for being unsuccessful. I had to substitute this with another reward for the new behavior. This completed my plan.
I had set down a timetable and followed it for one week. I made changes to the timetable after taking into consideration any issues that cropped up to revise the plan. I had now put the new plan in action for a week and documented it. I would evaluate this using the Stress dairy in Table 3. This stress dairy will be kept for a minimum of three weeks, documenting the routine stressors (stressors that occur daily) and unique stressors (those that occur infrequently). I will start implement this plan going shortly.
After one week of implementing the plan, I realized that I was partially successful. I could not get my comprehensive health checkup as the doctor’s appointment clashed with my first get-together with my friends. Rather than disappoint my friends I postponed the doctor’s appointment. I have also decided that I will not postpone this appointment again. I missed my exercise twice due to oversleeping and I had decided to have porridge as breakfast if I missed my exercise, as a negative reinforcement. I did not feel any fatigue this week and I did not see any stressors affecting me but I am documenting the stress dairy for the stipulated three weeks to observe.
Population Stress Management
The community partner of interest that I selected for this program is a small business called La Brisa, which is experiencing tremendous growth of sales for its fruit bar products. The company is located in Houston, Texas.
Demographics of my group. This company is now transitioning from a seasonal operation plant to a yearly full running production line in order to meet the demands of the consumers. Returning employees are finding this transition challenging. I am working on conducting a stress management program for stress induced by occupational noise in the production plant. Currently Houston Ayurveda is working with the group in stress management.
Community resources. Community resources available for the members of the target group are United Way helpline – 211, Houston Ayurveda Helpline – 713-623-0005, MD Anderson Cancer center helpline for stress management - 1-877-632-6789. Some of these require a fee.
Reason for working with this group. I had earlier worked with this group to promote health and safety and I had realized at that time that the members were suffering from stress related to occupational noise. I chose this group due to my familiarity with their problem and having seen the effect of the stressor first hand.
Noise increases blood pressure, raises heart rate, and leads to tension. Noise often results in job dissatisfaction and causes anxiety and irritation. Noise can result in sleep deprivation, hypertension, and headaches. When noise levels reach 85 decibels, stress responses might develop, and prolonged exposure above 90 decibels can cause hearing damage. Refer to Table 4 for a more comprehensive list of Physiological and Psychological effects of noise.
The issue here was that the organization provided the workforce with safeguards from the noise pollution. The workers chose to ignore them for reasons unknown. One of my tasks is to find out why they are not using the safeguards provided and educate them about the impact of noise as a stressor. Noise, even at sub 85-decibel level, can still be a stressor when combined with other factors like; (1) pervasive presence, (2) existing slight hearing loss, (3) stress due to other existing factors, and (4) the communication in a foreign language. Hearing loss occurs gradually so workers tend to underestimate it. My goal was to help the group to cope up with the stress created by the occupational noise and help them manage the stress.
Stress-Inoculation training and exercise. SITE consists of three components based upon Meichenbaum’s stress-inoculation training manual: (a) presentation of a conceptual framework, (b) skills acquisition (training in cognitive restructuring and self-statement modification), and (c) rehearsal and application. The role of self-statements in emotions and behaviors was discussed, irrational beliefs were examined, and imagery exercises were taught. Participants identified thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in specific stress situations, and devised alternatives to cope with the situations more constructively. Finally, these reactions were rehearsed through role-play and imagery. The last hour of each session focused on physical activity. In the first session, participants were given feedback on their fitness assessment and received an individualized exercise program based on self-monitored heart rate and perceived exertion. They set realistic exercise goals to increase their activity level and monitored their progress on weekly recording charts. In the following sessions, discussions were held on the psychological and physiological benefits of regular exercise, and educational materials were provided on related topics. Participants were given encouragement to maintain their exercise programs, and problems were dealt with from a problem-solving perspective.
Conclusion
I had identified my five top stressors and formulated a Personal Stress Management Plan. I have justified the reason for the formulation of the plan. I had tried the plan for a week and found out what worked and what did not. I revised my plan and I am planning to implement it shortly. I had also started a daily stress dairy, which will let me know, on a daily basis, the efficacy of my stress management plan.
I had chosen to assist the workforce of La Brisa with stress management. I had earlier spent time with them educating them about hazards of noise at work place. I will now be assisting them with a plan to manage stress arising out of occupational noise. I would educate the workforce that the stress they may already be experiencing but attributed to other reasons, might in fact have been caused by noise.
References
Coffman, D. A. (1982). Stress Management. Austin: Counseling-Psychological Services Center The University of Texas.
Girdano, D. E. (1997). Controlling Stress and Tension a Holistic Approach - Fifth Edition. Toronto: Allyn and Bacon.
Greenberg, J. S. (2008). Comprehensive Stress Management - 10E. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Meichenbaum, M. D. (1985). Stress inoculation training. Pergamon, New York.
Reducing the risks from occupational noise. (2005). EUROPEAN WEEK FOR SAFETY AND HEALTH AT WORK, 20.
Selye, H. (1974). Stress without distress. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott.
Wong, P. T. (2006). Coping Schemas Inventory-Revised. In P. T. Wong, Handbook of Multicultural perspectives on stress and coping. New York: Springer.
Appendix A
Figure 2: Workplace Stress Survey
Source: The American Institute of Stress
What is your position within the community? What are your responsibilities in this position?
I am the CEO of La Brisa and I have seen the company grow over the past 32 years. I had reinvested the profits back into the company to purchase quality ingredients and better machinery to improve the efficiency of making our signature fruit bars.
How important do you think stress management is for the production line workers? Please explain.
I strongly believe that stress due to noise is a serious matter. Many of our employees are noncompliant when not wearing proper gear to reduce hearing loss.
How is your organization/agency currently addressing the stress management needs of production line workers?
Through its quality assurance department, the organization has laid down several structures that would prevent employees in engaging in risky activities within the organization.
In what way(s) would you be able to collaborate with us in offering a health education/promotion program that addresses occupational safety for the workers in the production area?
We have a committed team of members who are excited to implement a program to improve the health and safety of our workers.
What other community organizations/resources do you think would be helpful to us in planning this health education/promotion program?
I believe that investing in the employees’ health and safety at work will improve morale and productivity. Now we have the recourses to invest in our employees.
Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Not at this time but thank you for your interest.
Interview 2: Jr. Flores
What is your position within the community? What are your responsibilities in this position?
I am the Plant Operating Manager and have been on this position for 10 years. My responsibilities are overseeing the operations of the production plant. Efficiency is important many things can go wrong such as the machines not working properly. My role is to solve the issues to get things moving, as they should.
How important do you think stress management is for the production line workers?
Many people do not know that they noise is one of the worst stressors. They need to be educated about it and I am glad you ae collaborating with us for a program to do that.
How is your organization/agency currently addressing the stress management needs of production line workers?
We have guidelines in place but noncompliance is an actual problem. That is something that I would like to see change.
In what way(s) would you be able to collaborate with us in offering a stress management program for the workers in the production area?
I believe that all members in the committee will have an influence in the success of the program.
What other community organizations/resources do you think would be helpful to us in planning this health education/promotion program?
Houston Ayurveda is working with us and assists in the stress management for the workers.
Is there anything else that you would like to add?
No, we have addressed the important concerns at this time.
