Discussion Topic #6 – Chapter 5 – Developmental/Preventive Interventions
(300 words minimum for main posting with 200 word replies)
Chapter 5 addresses prevention strategies for mental health challenges. Some of the strategies presented are broad based and are considered “primary prevention”, or interventions that take place before a problem occurs. The chapter illustrates four major interventions: stress management programs (p. 133); health and wellness interventions (p. 139); parenting and family-focused programs (p. 143), and life skills training (p. 145).
For this discussion:
Describe the four interventions and their goals
Briefly discuss which one you would choose, and why, if you only had funding for the creation of a program focusing on only one of the four strategies
Minimum 300 word posting with 200 word replies to two classmates
replies
Ivanna
In Chapter 5: Developmental/Preventive Interventions, we learned about the 4 major interventions and their goals. The 1st intervention is stress management interventions which emphasizes in examining the stressors in the individuals lives. Individuals should change the environment, change the cognitive response to stress, change their lifestyle and should change physiological responses to stress. Changing the environment means that people can lower stress by learning to control their environment effectively. How? Controlling environmental stressors by developing and implementing problem-solving, time management, and interpersonal skills in their daily lives. By the other hand, changing cognitive response to stress means that individual learn stress management skills and techniques, so they can control more the way they react to environmental situations. Moreover, in order to prevent stress individuals should maintain a healthy lifestyle. Counselors should educate the client in strategies and psychoeducational intervention so they can learn to change their lifestyle. For example: weight reduction, healthy nutrition, conflict resolution classes, etc. Is also, important counselors teach individuals how to change their physiological response to stress, because we can’t control the environmental factor but we can learn how to intervene at the physiological level of the stress response. By learning techniques of relaxation training, mental imagery and meditation, people can learn to response and manage better their stress, which that is the main goal for this intervention.
The 2nd intervention is health promotion/wellness program which emphasizes that client develop new attitudes and behaviors that improve their wellness. The main focus (goal) on this intervention is helping people adapt to immediate health concerns, preventing longer term effect on mental and physical health, helping people develop attitudes thar foster an orientation toward personal wellness and helping people learn how to implement behaviors associated with optimal levels of health and well-being. The 3rd intervention is focused on parenting and family programs due to the importance of family life in our healthy development and preventing new problems. Parenting programs, have an impact on child development, affecting the stability of their life and all family members, which is the main goal for this intervention. The 4th intervention is life skills training which emphasizes in how we react to our challenges, conflicts, confusions and difficulties. How we react can affect our physical and psychological wellbeing. Obtaining life skills are important in how we face our challenges and stressful times.
If I have to select one, I would choose stress management intervention. We are surrounded by so much stress. At home, at work, family situations, external situations, internal situations, problems here and problems there. We need to learn how to manage stress in the most effective way. Stress can harm us physically and emotionally. I believe society, doesn’t pay much attention in creating programs to help individuals managing stress, something so common as stress and people doesn’t talk a lot about it. What do you guys think about this?
Danielle
Stress issues stem from a combination of individual perceptions, cultural factors, external pressures, and bodily responses (somaticizing happens to me all the time, for example.) As counselors we can help our clients to learn how to best handle stress, in different ways that work for them.
Goals of the Stress Management Programs:
- Acting against the stressor by changing their environment (creating problem-solving, time management, and interpersonal competences as well as ensuring they have a strong social support system (as we discussed in previous discussions, the importance of dedicated support systems!) in place).
- Making lifestyle modifications (preserving a healthy lifestyle).
- Learning how to alter one’s physiological responses to stress (using different techniques like biofeedback training, relaxation exercises, visualization, self-hypnosis, and meditation).
- Correcting one’s cognitive responses to the stressor (reframing the way they think about their life stressors).
Health Promotion and Wellness Interventions
It is known that many health issues can be prevented by developing innovative approaches and behaviors that enhance and promote their mind, body, and spirit and overall well-being. Additionally, preventative, and informative programs (whether it be in the schools, community agencies, or hospitals) can affect vast numbers of people. These health promotion programs designed to promote “optimal functioning” are helpful because they create a deeper understanding of wellness, clients can really tune in to their own power to prevent illness through personal resourcefulness, and inspiring clients to take accountability for meeting their own health needs.
Goals of the Health Promotion and Wellness Interventions Programs:
- Helping people address immediate health matters so that long term effects on mental and physical health can be avoided.
- Helping people improve attitudes that foster an orientation toward personal wellness.
- Helping people learn how to implement behaviors associated with optimal levels of health and well-being.
Parenting and Family-Focused Programs
The context of family life plays a huge role in facilitating healthy development and averting new problems. Parenting programs and preventative tactics obviously have major impacts on child development (another ode to Human Growth and Development! ?), but they also have a major impact on the whole family system as well. Strong developmental and preventative programs with life skill training at its core yields healthy parents, which in turn can help yield healthy children. That is the name of the game!
Goals of the Parenting and Family-Focused Programs:
1. To enhance relationships through strong and healthy communication, life, and situational problem-solving skills, and to preserve constructive connections and opportunities.
2. To boost family resilience and prevent substance and/or other types of abuse.
3. To maintain open and effective lines of communication between parents and their children (who could be at-risk of developing substance abuse, behavioral and/or delinquency, and academic issues).
Life Skills Training Programs
The life skills training approach is rooted in prevention in both theory and practice. According to our textbook, “researchers have noted that the emphasis on the prevention and the development of personal competencies—the core of most life skills training programs—has substantially enhanced the successful adjustment and personal satisfaction of people of diverse backgrounds and ages (Albee, Bond, & Monsey, 1992; Albee & Ryn-Finn, 1993; Bond & Compas, 1989; Commission on Prevention of Mental/Emotional Disorders, 1987; Salzman & D’Andrea, 2001).”
Goals of the Life Skills Training Programs:
- To promote intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies.
- To foster life, social and problem-solving skills of individuals.
- To encourage psychological skills as well as healthy social behaviors of children and adolescents (as we have learned, the earlier the promotion of well-being and the prevention/intervention of unhealthy coping mechanisms, the better!).
- To promote a deeper understanding of one’s own role within possible systemic oppression (another throwback to an earlier post regarding oppression and the importance of understanding how it affects one’s life in all aspects) through the development of critical thinking strategies.
Let me make it clear that I would choose all four of these programs if the funding were there. I believe all four are crucial and can all complement the other. However, as we have learned in this class and in life, there is little funding to go around (especially when it comes to mental and physical well-being, early prevention, etc.) and so if I had to choose just one, it would be the Stress Management Program. I chose this one because it encompasses all the facets needed to promote emotional, physical, spiritual, and mental wellness. By focusing on stress management, the domino effects can be very optimal and rewarding. By integrating a healthy lifestyle, using different techniques to alter our physiological response to stress, and reframing the way we view and handle life stressors, we can drastically not only improve our lives, but the lives of those around us, including the little ones who look up to us as role models.
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