Stress management in public safety organizations: evaluation and intervention

Stress Management

Stress Evaluation and Intervention Proposal

Stress Management in Public Safety Organizations

Public safety organizations are one of the most important components of any society as they are responsible to provide support and assistance to the community in times of crisis. The employees of such organization however are always exposed to stressful situations and they need to be mentally and emotionally strong to take the challenge, deal with it and help other dependents out of it. This is of great concern for public administration authorities as constant exposure to stressful situations leads to development of some kind of psychological disorder among the employees. This paper aims at evaluating how stressful conditions can be identified, evaluated and intervened so as to provide a coping strategy to deal with a stressor. The paper evaluates various literature pieces that are available in the relevant field of study and also analyzes stress management models that are developed by various psychologists. The paper further evaluates the scope and limitations of those models and theories and then proposes relevant evaluation and intervention strategies in light of the theories.

.Psychological Stress Model

The Psychological Stress Model (PSM) presented in Lemyre's (2009) study was adapted as a classic model for stress research, following the flow of "first generation" stress models, which is in the form of Stimuli-Response or S-R linkage. This model looks at different critical components that causes and influences stress affect: stressor(s), coping strategies, social environment, appraisal, stress, and disorder. This linear stress model ultimately shows the linkage between stressors and stress, and determines how stress can actually lead to psychological disorders when it escalates and without intervention (p. 455).

Through the PSM, Lemyre posited that in an individual, 'more stressful life events lead to higher probability of developing an illness the following year' (p. 456). This hypothesis is then supported through the PSM, wherein each component is part of a critical path that ultimately determines the eventual development (or prevention) of stress into a psychological disorder.

Stressors were determined based on the following parameters that describe perceived threat or danger to the individual of an event: severity, mastery, and uncertainty. Using these 3 concepts, the author went developed linkage among these to help understand the nature of stressors in the PSM: stressors considered as highly severe contribute to lesser mastery of events by the individual, which eventually increases the level of uncertainty in him/her, and at this point, the individual now experiences stress based on this transition of threat created by stressor(s) (p. 457).

Further down into the model, stressors are either dealt with through coping strategies and/or the social environment. It is also possible that the individual would eventually become stressed once these stressors set in, and the PSM demonstrates these possible scenarios. That is, the individual can take four routes under this model when confronted with stressors: (i) develop coping strategies to combat these stressors, (ii) generate support from the social environment to deal with these stressors, (iii) generate support by developing coping strategies and turning to one's social network; and (iv) succumbing to stress immediately. The fourth route, in fact, makes it plausible for Lemyre's hypothesis to be proven correctly: indeed, in the event that the stressors lead directly to stress, it is not a remote possibility that the individual will also, almost immediately, succumb to psychological disorder as a result of this stress.

The model also addresses stress evaluation through the appraisal stage, which happens in two (2) stages: the first appraisal is the evaluation component of this stage, wherein the event is understood from the individual's point-of-view. The second appraisal, meanwhile, is the contemplation and development of an appropriate response to the stimulus experienced and upon the individual's analysis of the event and the effect of stressors in it. As explicated earlier, the success of this appraisal could be influenced by the individual's going through the route to developing coping strategies or turning to the social environment for support. However, the PSM also shows that despite effective appraisal, it is still possible that the appraisal conducted will result to stress and eventual development of a psychological disorder. Indeed, Markov's hypothesis holds true, wherein accumulates stressful life events will eventually lead to an illness in the following year.

In the following sections, understanding of the dimensions and measures related to stress evaluation and intervention will be contextualized through the PSM. Further into this proposed study, all dimensions and measures uncovered in the literature review will be assessed and eventually interpreted through this model. That is, for this proposed study, the working theoretical framework and model would be anchored on the basic components and routes illustrated in the Psychological Stress Model.

Stress Evaluation -- Dimensions and Measures. Review of literature on stress evaluation per se yielded different dimensions and measures that attempt to determine this concept quantitatively. Moeini (2008) dimensionalized stress evaluation in terms of self-efficacy, positing that perceived self-efficacy is an indication of one's susceptibility to stress. Moeini's study's hypothesis suggests general self-efficacy and mental health of the individual are the primary determinants of perceived stress by the individual. Further into the study, the author defined self-efficacy as it relates to psychological stress, and developed measures to quantitatively measure these determinants in the study.

In the study, the author found out that and established the inverse relationship between perceived stress and self-efficacy: as perceived stress levels increases, self-efficacy of the individual decreases or lowers (p. 262). Stress evaluation becomes a critical concept at this point, since the study demonstrates how one's self-perception could actually make the difference between succumbing to stress and psychological disorder or not. A perceived stress level, as established in the study, affects the individual's performance in life, and effects of perceived stress in one's self could be detrimental to the everyday functions, activities and interactions of the individual.

Another dimension explored that could influence stress evaluation is in the aspect of effective coping, as explicated in Caserta's (2009) study among the recently bereaved. While this study could explain stress intervention as well, the study is more relevant to the concept of stress evaluation as one of the key findings of the study is that stress among the recently bereaved was prevented through the following factors: experienced generosity, high self-esteem, and perceived support satisfaction (p. 768). These factors affecting the development of stress are considered by the author as coping strategies; however, when applied to the PSM, these factors become more relevant to the social environment and appraisal stage. Findings in this study demonstrated the way social environment functions contributed to the prevention of stress, particularly, how the individual perceives his/her social environment.

The study showed that a social environment conducive to the grieving individual -- that is, perceived generosity of people, strong social support received from his/her social network and high self-esteem resulting from these positive experiences -- lessens the possibility of the individual developing stress or a psychological illness resulting from the death of a loved one.

Stress evaluation, then, is a function of other factors that influence the escalation of the individual towards having a stressful or stress-free life. In both studies, specific factors were identified critical to the determent of stress in an individual: self-efficacy, perceived generosity, support satisfaction, and self-esteem. All these factors are also found at the critical path in the PSM, the stage between stressors and appraisal, since they contribute to the determination of one's response to stressors and susceptibility to experiencing psychological stress. Thus, the achievement of these factors ensures a clear path away from having a stressful life; however, PSM is designed in such a way that it proves that accumulated stress over time eventually results to the development of illness in the individual. This is a challenge that must be established or be given further consideration in the study. Specifically, the researcher will have to evaluate if this component of the PSM will still be retained or another component from another model be used to provide two alternative outcomes to the PSM, not only limiting the result to psychological disorder or illness.

Stress Intervention -- Dimensions and Measures. Stress intervention can still be placed in the PSM between the onset of stressors and appraisal stage, and can be found in either coping strategies or social environment, or both. Literature review on stress intervention showed that most interventions are coping mechanisms developed to either prevent stress or recognize it as an inevitable part of people's lives (Bianchi, 2004, p. 743).

Existing intervention programs to combat or prevent stress can be as highly structured as the 'general therapeutic model' used in the military. This stress intervention program deals with issues of and related to stress through specific techniques, namely: brevity (of the program), immediacy, centrality, expectancy, proximity, and simplicity. All of these dimensions pertain to the program and the individual, and as Potter's (2009) study illustrated, this program adopted by the military have proven to be effective, particularly among personnel deployed or assigned to highly stressful environments.

The general therapeutic model provides a good basis for stress intervention programs, as it consolidates important learning and critical components that intervention programs must essentially have (i.e., minimum basic requirements in an intervention program). In the proposed study, this type of intervention program will be evaluated thoroughly and will be applied in the course of the study's development of recommended intervention programs to be tested, re-modeled or re-programmed, and proposed as another stress intervention program alternative.

Literature Review and Discussion

Discussion

To understand, the effects of stress and the measures, which should be taken to avoid it, the way stress works needs to be understood. Stress is the particular issue in our life, which one has to deal with every single day. In some cases it can serve the purpose of motivation considering there is a constant realization to produce better, however excess of it can lead to many negative effects like sleep deprivation, downward graph in performance, and loss of appetite as well as sudden mood changes. Due to these reasons it has become extremely important for researchers and doctors to determine symptoms of stress visible in every individual that can have a potential exposure to a stressful situation.

For this purpose a literature search was conducted to discover the available information on stress education and evaluation in various aspects of life. The analysis was conducted using two studies. The first study is by Beck (2006) and their colleagues who conducted a survey among various medicine, nursing and pharmacy students. The questionnaire asked the participants to describe their perception about stress and its origins. The results of the study showed that nursing students were facing a greater amount of stress as compared to pharmacy students. Pharmacy students reported stress associated with the amount of class material they have to present. The second and third most common causes of stress emerged from the results of this research were studies and exams and grades respectively.

As there is limited research available on the topic of stress and its evaluation wa second study will also be considered, which was conducted for this case. This study was conducted by Ranelli and their colleagues (1993), this study aimed at discovering how many students and pharmacy, nursing and other social sciences use prescription and non-prescription drugs and supplements to cope with stress. Out of 692 students who participated in the study, 47% admitted that they had used supplements during the past two weeks. The major reasons found to be stress; improper diets and to boost energy. This is a brief account of the presence of stress around us based on two strong studies.

Throughout the twentieth and the twenty first century, stress models have always been used to describe understanding and definitions of stress and to help a great deal in understanding the inter-connectivity of the problem. Similar to Lazarus's and Lemyre's model on stress, there are other available models as well which confer, in some cases the same and in some cases provide a rational representation on stress.

For instance Canon's "fight or flight" model is considered one of the earliest models available on stress. It describes stress in the form of an internal conflict, explaining that once a person's mind is under stress the thinking process in some way gets distorted hence the only choice a person feels is left for the person under stress is to either escape stress or fight it. According to Cannon, stress is the response to various individual stressors that are most normally seen as physiological factors. Another model worth mentioning here is Selye's General Adaption Syndrome model that was designed in 1956. This model describes the process of stress in three stages; the first stage is "alarm," second is "resistance" and the third stage is "exhaustion." These three stages can be described in a condominium. For example, in the first stage stressful situation may arise as a result of any activity that a person may not be used to. The second stage is Resistance in which one tries to deal with and reduce the effects of stress in any way that he/she might come up with an attempt to reverse the effects of the first stage. In the third stage of exhaustion, the person reaches to a limit where he/she is unable to cope with, and is forced to quit sometime (Yoshiuchi.1998).

It is evident from research that situations and circumstances that cause stress in a person's life cause there certain changes to take place in it. Holmes and Rahe's (1967) has discussed this in 'Schedule of Recent Experiences' (SRE), this research provides a long list of possible stress related events which might put huge impact on one's life and cause their lives to undergo certain changes. These events include, jail time, pregnancy, death of a family member, and children moving out. Sometimes minor events can cause stress like "vacations" and "alteration in eating habits." Each of these events hold a score points that shows the impact and to what extent does it affect one's life, especially if it's under stress.

The Stress Appraisal Measure

Much of the available literature on the measurement of appraisal in the process of stress or stressful situations deals with the events of daily life or everyday problems that one comes across with. Lazarus's notes suggest that even though encounters do provide useful information regarding a person's life, it can also serve as a major compromise when it comes to cognitive relational theory. Hence the alternative focus should be on a person's environment and a particular event in their lives, which can be used as a transaction to analyze specific components which can be useful in the assessment and analysis of that particular event and hence further recommendations can be suggested based on the findings. This process is also called the primary and secondary appraisal.

There are various approaches that can be used to determine and measure the primary appraisal. These may include various emotional scales, reaction to threat, huge loss and challenge. Primary appraisal can also be measured by evaluating the key factor that is on stake in the outcome of the particular encounter. This measurement has now led to further development of several "stake scales," which can be used in the analysis of severity and importance of a particular situation in relation to stress. There are also ways where single items individually can be measured, these can be used in assessing how difficult, challenging, disturbing and a person who is under stress perceives threatening the situation. However, the major problem with such scales is that there are high chances of mistake because the focus is just on one subject and so the outcomes cannot be generalized.

Now coming to the secondary appraisals, these scales use "four single items" from within a situation and assess the situation accordingly. These items mostly play the part of figuring out the extent to which a situation can be changed or if the situation has to be accepted or the situation requires more information or finally if the requirement of the situation is to hold oneself back. Bearing in mind that these are individual single item-based measurements; the results will be required to interpret cautiously. Another drawback of this method is that these measurements are limited to just coping with the situation.

Stress Intervention Programs and Techniques.

The most effective technique of coping with stress is to draft a check list in which various questions are given along with check boxes in front of each question which one can see refer to if finds himself/herself in a stressful situation so that he/she is reminded on how to cope with a situation where he/she is losing temper due to a tensed or stressful situation. Another measure for coping with a difficult situation is the single item method. It is also called 'situation specific," in this method the situation is analyzed and evaluated individually and hence dealt with in the same order.

The cognitive relational theory places the appraisal measurements in the center of the stress evaluating process. However researchers claim that the measurements of the person's influences, coping strategies and situations where there is an encounter do not provide the assistance required. In order to achieve the desired results, this process needs to be studied in the light of prospective studies. If used in the right manner the stress measuring techniques may prove to be extremely useful to analyze stress and stress full situation.

Recommendation

In an organizational setting such as a Public Safety Organizations employees are exposed to stressful conditions, where they have to deal with direct stressors such as dead bodies or severe criminal activity. Some employees such as army battalions have an additional burden of defending the country as a whole. Although the theoretical models suggests that in extreme conditions, the stress individual will give in to the stressors and will develop a mental disorder, it is immensely important that employees in a public safety organization are psychologically stronger and are able to handle stress rather than giving into it as they are responsible to provide assistance to other civilians who might be under even more mental stress and would be looking up to the public safety organizations for support. Therefore it is important that the employees working in public safety organizations are counseled using cognitive techniques that aims at building up the perception of employees' about the prominent positivity of their job rather than the dim negatives. It must be reiterated to them, and they should be made to believe that the contribution they are making to the society is immense and they will earn respect and honor from the society at large for their services as not everybody is capable for the kind of work they are doing. In severe cases, it must be considered that the stressed individual is withdrawn from the stressful environment and is given a short break that relaxes him / her mentally.