BBA II SEM

HRD UNIT 4 PART 2

Stress Management
Stress management is a wide spectrum of techniques and psychotherapies aimed at controlling a person's level
of stress, especially chronic stress, for the motive of improving everyday functioning.
Definition and Characteristics of Stress
 Stress is a natural response to a perceived challenge or a threat. When someone perceives a situation as
challenging or threatening and dangerous, he or she is likely to experience the situation as
stressful. Physiologically, stress is a buildup of hormones in your body that create tension, strain, or
pressure and that is initially a positive response readying the person to freeze, flee, or fight. At an
optimum level, this “positive stress” can act as a motivational force and provide physical strength and
clarity of thinking.
 Once the stress hormones are no longer necessary or the person perceives he or she is no longer in
danger, the excess stress hormones need to be released from the body. The body‟s stress control or
„allosteric system‟ becomes charged too frequently with no chance to vent the buildup of energy
 If the threating or dangerous situation continues, managing it requires the use of known coping
mechanisms or the development of new coping mechanisms as a means of adaptation to the continued
stress of the situation.
 Excessive or chronic stress that has no opportunity for release can have negative effects on a person‟s
physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral states. Too much cortisol will damage memory, hurt or
weaken your immune system and enlarge your stomach which can increase the risk of heart disease.
The human response to stress as can be seen in the cycle below includes our initial reactions and then the wear
and tear on our body, from the muscles in our legs that hold us up to the sweat glands that try to cool us from
the heat as well as many hormones and organs that help try to manage a stressor.

Organizational Stress Management

It is the responsibility of program managers and supervisors to provide a structure by which the staff‟s
exposure and coping with the stress of disaster response circumstances are addressed. Leaders can design
procedures that assist in the mitigation of direct and secondary traumatic stress (stress experienced as a result
of helping survivors) and compassion fatigue as well as creating an organizational culture that supports stress
management and self-care for all the staff.
Potential Sources of Stress
Causes of work stress include:
 Being unhappy in your job Long Working hours
 Having a heavy workload or too much responsibility
 Having poor management, unclear expectations of your work, or no say in the decision-making process
 Working under dangerous conditions
 Being insecure about your chance for advancement or risk of termination
 Having to give speeches in front of colleagues
 Facing discrimination or harassment at work, especially if your company isn't supportive
Life stresses can also have a big impact. Examples of life stresses are:
 The death of a loved one, Divorce, Loss of a job
 Increase in financial obligations Getting married Moving to a new home
 Chronic illness or injury
 Emotional problems (depression, anxiety, anger, grief, guilt, low self-esteem)
 Taking care of an elderly or sick family member
 Traumatic event, such as a natural disaster, theft, or violence against you or a loved one

Consequences of Stress: What happens to the body during stress?

The body‟s autonomic nervous system controls your heart rate, breathing, vision changes and more. Its built-in
stress response, the “fight-or-flight response,” helps the body face stressful situations.
When a person has long-term (chronic) stress, continued activation of the stress response causes wear and tear
on the body. Physical, emotional and behavioral symptoms develop.
Physical symptoms of stress include:
 Aches and pains.  Muscle tension or jaw clenching.
 Chest pain or a feeling like your heart is  Stomach or digestive problems.
racing.  Trouble having sex.
 Exhaustion or trouble sleeping.  Weak immune system.
 Headaches, dizziness or shaking.
 High blood pressure.
Stress can lead to emotional and mental symptoms like:
 Anxiety or irritability.  Panic attacks.
 Depression.  Sadness
Often, people with chronic stress try to manage it with unhealthy behaviors, including:
 Drinking alcohol too much or too often.  shopping or internet browsing.
 Gambling.  Smoking.
 Overeating or developing an eating disorder.  Using drugs.
Management of Stress Situations: Organizational stress management include the following:
Structure
 Providing a clearly articulated and often repeated purpose, goals, scope, and limits of the
program. Ensure that staff have functionally defined roles that are reinforced through supervision and
understand their responsibilities as well as their limitations or restrictions in a way that applies to them
directly.
 Articulating and enforcing policies related to work hours, holidays, supervision, and attendance at staff
meetings and training and debriefing events. This means monitoring time off, expecting that staff will
use their benefit time, and mandating it, if necessary. It also means providing access to supervision, peer
support, and training opportunities, and expecting and even mandating staff where appropriate to use
these opportunities.
Supervision and Peer Support
 Ensuring sound clinical consultation, support, and supervision through a clearly defined management
and supervision structure with sufficient contact with leadership, access to supervision in various
modalities, and a sense of support for each staff member from his or her direct manager.
 Providing a structure by which staff can build supportive peer relationships, such as implementing a
weekly peer support meeting, addressing conflict, and acknowledging special events, landmarks, and
accomplishments.
Roles and Responsibilities
 Providing a clear set of criteria for crisis counseling service provision, including who is served and for
how long, requiring justification and approval by supervisory staff for extended or unusually long,
continued counseling contacts.
 Clearly articulating and enforcing safety policies, including those related to traveling, working with a
buddy, reporting itinerary changes, having access to communications in the field, and avoiding "hot
zones."
 Clearly articulating and enforcing ethical conduct related to confidentiality, special needs survivors, and
proper boundaries, even within the flexibility of disaster response.
Training and Stress Management
 Creating an active stress management program that formalizes staff stress management strategies and
activities that are integrated throughout the life of the disaster response program.
 Creating a comprehensive training plan that adequately prepares counselors for their work. Include these
components:

 The use of modeling, role play, and simulation exercises to give staff an opportunity to practice crisis
counseling, and especially responses to highly distraught people
 A repertoire of introductory statements that are free of mental health references but speak to disaster
distress
 Practice on how to conclude a counseling relationship
 Examples of signals that indicate whether talking about problems is bringing relief to the survivor or
agitating him or her
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