CharityVillage® Research: Personal Development: Building an arsenal against stress and burnout

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Building an arsenal against stress and burnout
by Kristin Duare McKinnon, MSW
April 28, 2003

The week of May 5 to 11, 2003 is Mental Health Week - a time to educate Canadians about the nature of mental illness and the importance of mental health. The national office of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) initiated Mental Health Week fifty-two years ago, and it is still going strong today. The core message of this important time - one that should ring true 365 days a year - is that mental health is a part of everyone's health.
The Challenge
Today's world is a complicated place, as are the demands that it puts upon its citizens. With technology leading the way at a breakneck pace, we all find it a challenge to just keep up with the hour, let alone the day or the week. Yet, alas, we are still human - seeming unending demands on our time, resources and energy will eventually drain us. Endless demands and the desperate attempts to meet them will too often lead to chronic anxiety and stress. Chronic anxiety and stress put us at risk for depression - the new epidemic of our modern world - and a host of other health problems that come with it.
The Agency
CMHA, Victoria County Branch (which serves the area now known as the City of Kawartha Lakes, Ontario) has been striving to meet the mental health needs of its community since 1989. It started out with a focus on direct service and identified four mental health needs for the former Victoria County - early recognition of symptoms and appropriate treatment, community living facilities, family and consumer support groups, and accessibility of services. As these services were developed and delivered by the local CMHA, a new need was becoming evident - the need for public education initiatives in mental health.
On the Way to a Solution
On the way to finding a solution to their public's general need for mental health education, the staff members at CMHA, Victoria County Branch prepared a special day-long workshop called Stress & Burnout: Recognition, Prevention & Coping Strategies. Developed by bringing together a diversity of stress management resources, this workshop empowers people to care for their own mental health by providing education, information and practical tools to manage stress and anxiety.

Participants in the Stress & Burnout workshops are often surprised that they possess some of the skills and knowledge needed to combat the corrosive effects of stress and burnout - they just need a little practical help to learn how to implement solutions. The facilitators emphasize that there is no special secret to combating stress but there are two important keys - knowledge and support.

The facilitators use these two key elements to make the workshop a success. Everyone has problems, but being able to share them with others - and realizing that we aren't struggling alone - can have a very empowering effect. This realization also helps participants to feel less shame for needing, and asking for, help and education.

The group atmosphere also allows for the sharing of a wealth of strategies to cope with stress and burnout. Participants hear about the ideas and strategies that others in the group have used to cope with stressful situations. They also share with each other their stress successes and failures. This experiential 'knowledge bank' is appreciated far more than information from any textbook or handout.
The Parts & Pieces
Each full-day Stress & Burnout workshop includes these parts and pieces:

Introductions, ice breakers and ground rules

Group brainstorming about stress & burnout - What are they, what do they mean to us, how have they affected our lives? The facilitators then explain the 'stress basics' - what stress is and how it can positively and negatively impact our lives.

Review of the Stress Exhaustion Symptoms - Participants go over a list of physical, emotional, spiritual, mental and relational symptoms that are the warning signs of stress. Reviewing the list helps participants to see how stress permeates every aspect of their lives. This exercise is designed to meet the reflective goal of the workshop by shedding light on our individual symptoms [of stress and burnout], as well as teaching participants to differentiate early and late warning signals from our mind, body and spirit.

Work stress and burnout - Participants discuss how work situations can impact their stress level and 'seep' into other parts of their lives.

Personality traits and stress - Participants learn that different personality traits and temperaments react differently to stress. It is erroneous that stress only comes from our environment - how we perceive and react to stress also impacts whether it has a chronic affect on us. (George from the TV show 'Seinfeld' is offered up as someone who is particularly susceptible to stress.)

Learned Helplessness - Participants take part in an exercise on learned helplessness so that they can understand how giving up can lead to burnout and serious depression.

Solutions!! - The group watches a video of a woman living with stress and - based on what they have learned - brainstorms to find solutions to her challenges. Participants are encouraged to reflect and draw similarities between the video situation, what they have learned in the workshop, and their own lives and experiences.

My Personal Commitment & Balancing Plan - Perhaps most important to participants is being expected to make a personal commitment to manage the stress in their lives after the workshop is done.

Relaxation exercises - As the long day wraps up, the facilitators take participants through relaxation exercises.
What's Next
As is always the case, CMHA, Victoria County Branch strives to provide the best of support and services. As a part of this commitment, workshops facilitators always ask participants to complete a feedback and evaluation form. Changes are made to the workshop program based on the feedback gathered.
The Stress & Burnout workshops have been so popular that CMHA, Victoria County Branch has developed a 'spin-off' called Balancing Work & Family: Common Issues & Helpful Solutions. The curriculum of this workshop is similar to that of its predecessor but the facilitators focus more on the challenge of balancing the demands of work and home. Work & Family is also tailored to its audience - special seminars have been developed, for example, for local municipal employees, corporations, and even the self-employed.
Some participants in these workshops approach CMHA, Victoria County Branch for further assistance and have joined their ongoing groups - the Depression Support Group, Assertiveness Support Group, and Setting Healthy Boundaries.
Beyond developing workshops to meet continuing and diverse needs in their community, CMHA, Victoria County Branch also strives to raise awareness by sharing their resources with other groups, organizations and communities. For more information on these or any other CMHA, Victoria County Branch workshops, please call Naresh James or Jennifer Cox at (705) 328-2704 or email cmhavcb@nexicom.net.
More about Mental Health Week
www.cmha.ca/mhw

More about CMHA
www.cmha.ca

Stress & Burnout Resources
stress.about.com/library/blinstanthelp.htm - All of the basics in stress management 101 brought to you by About.com.

www.cmha.ca/english/coping_with_stress/index.html - The CMHA national office‰s mini-site on stress and stress management. An excellent resource, the site includes a first aid stress kit (including a stress test), stress management resources, and stress stoppers.

mentalhelp.net/psyhelp - A wonderful online handbook called Psychological Self-Help will take you through the steps needed to understand and apply self-help to common problems (such as stress and depression) and solutions.

www.charityvillage.com/archive/acov/acov98/acov9825.html - You Can't Do it All Ü This 3-part series of articles looks at the symptoms and warning signs of stress and burnout in the helping profession, though the ideas are helpful to anyone.

www.coping.org - This is the home of the Tools for Coping Series - onsite manuals for coping with a variety of life's stressors. Be sure to check out their burnout section at www.coping.org/growth/burnout.htm - it offers excellent information about burnout, what it is, the factors and beliefs that can lead to it, as well as helpful tips and solutions. There are many other great pages to visit as well.

www.mindtools.com/smsymstr.html - A detailed listing of the symptoms and effects of chronic stress. Also be sure to visit their stress management pages, indicated through a link on the top, right corner of the page. And keep an eye out for nifty links all over the site; it‰s a little chaotic but they‰ve got some great stuff there for you to find!

imt.net/~randolfi/StressLinks.html - All kinds of stress management and emotional wellness links.

www.friedsocialworker.com - A fun site. Although it is created for social workers, there is a lot of helpful information and humour that we all could use.

Kristin Duare McKinnon has diverse front-line and administrative experience in nonprofit organizations providing health, social, and community services. She now has her own business, KDM, which offers program support to the non-profit sector. Kristin's special interests include leadership and service excellence, program development and evaluation, volunteer management, and working with seniors and people with disabilities. She can be reached at KDM, P.O. Box 429, Pontypool, ON Phone (705) 277-3262; Fax (705) 277-2921.