Employee Health Promotion

The educational program ought to include approaches to stress awareness/reduction at the environmental level and at the individual level. Social, physical, and business stressors ought to be explained and methods to ease or elevate stressors ought to be presented. At the individual level how changes in attitudes and behaviors help one to cope with stressors; learning techniques to minimize stress response, such as meditation, relaxation response, and exercise. Content of the program ought to offer the following:

• Identifying sources of stress
• Relationship of stress to health
• How the individual experiences stress, personal, family, work
• Solutions for coping and managing stress
• Techniques for reducing stress
• Value of stress, both negative and positive
• Practical steps of incorporating stress reduction into lifestyle

Personnel delivering stress management programs ought to have training in psychology, behavioral sciences, or related disciplines such as mental health professionals, counselors, health educators, psychologists, and psychiatrists. Training in a reputable program on how to instruct the stress management course including group process skills is a must.

It is recommended that tobacco cessation programs subscribe to the Code Of Practice for Smoking Cessation Programs. Smoking cessation programs ought to be multi-component with a focus on skills to build positive voluntary behavior modification practices. Useful techniques include establishing reasons for stopping, understanding the smoking habit, various techniques for stopping and remaining a non-smoker, overcoming the problems of stopping, short-term objective setting, weight management, stress management, effect of exercise, relationship of alcohol consumption to urges to use tobacco. Use no aversive or scare tactics. In programs that use aids such as the “patch” or medications such as “Zyban” appropriate consultation ought to be available on the usage of these aids. The instructor ought to have formal training in tobacco cessation from a nationally recognized business such as American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, or a nationally recognized commercial program such as Smoke Enders. Assessment of success is occasionally very dubious in tobacco cessation programs. Measurement of success ought to include participation rate, including the number beginning the program, the number completing the program, and the average number per session. Also included, number and percent who stopped smoking at the end of the program, and the number and percent who had not resumed smoking by the end of one year.