PSY6106 CBT to Reduce Symptoms of Stress and Depression

Overview Of The Program:

The webinar aims to increase awareness about a program implemented by ABC health that provides psychological treatment to people in the community. The Company has now offered a policy to offer Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to employees to avoid burnout. The program is planned in such a way that if an employee is experiencing depressive symptoms, they will be automatically placed in rehabilitation program to cope with depression.

Significance Of The Topic:

The significance of the topic is that addresses the problem of stress and burnout among employees and emphasizes on psychological well-being of employees. Burnout is a common syndrome among health care workers and it results in emotional exhaustion, decreased professional efficacy and poor job performance. It also increases the risk of medical errors and have impact on the quality of care (De Hert, 2020).  Thus, finding a novel approach to support health care workers who go through stress and burnout is considered a beneficial endeavor. This initiative can also decrease the likelihood of other negative consequences of burnout such as resignation, frequent absenteeism, decline in professional values and commitment (Shariatkhah, Farajzadeh & Khazaee, 2017). Use of CBT along with natural therapy has been targeted as CBT as it has been identified as a cost effective approach in reducing negative thoughts and promoting work efficiency among health care workers (Bagheri et al., 2019). In addition, natural therapy has been integrated with CBT so that employees can learn to assist themselves in coping with stress using easy natural therapy.

Rationale And Objective Of The Webinar

The main objective of the webinar is to reduce stress level of employees and promote their psychological well-being. The main rationale for designing such program is the high incidence of stress among clinical health workers. Chou, Li and Hu (2014) report that apart from nurses and physicians, physician assistants, administrative staffs as well as medical technicians are at high risk of burnout. The rate of burnout was found to be highest in nurses followed by physicians and assistants. This finding further signifies why there is a need to develop feasible strategies to reduce stress and ultimately burnout among employees in health care setting. There are many factors that lead to burnout such as excess work demand, long shift patterns and high stressful environment (Elbarazi et al., 2014). Interventions like CBT and therapy can act as a relaxing intervention for the target audience.

Target Audience For The Webinar

The target audiences for the webinar are employees at the organization, HR professionals, business leaders and consultants. The main rationale for selecting upper management staffs like business leaders and consultants is that they are members who are likely to implement new policies in organization. Thus, gaining their approval in implementing the project is important. Through the webinar, the aim is to influence business leaders and health consultants so that they give permission for such well-being projects for health careworkers. In addition, the human resource professionals have been targeted as they are the group who pay attention to meeting all rights and needs of employee. So, awareness about such psychological well-being program is needed by HR professionals too so that they adequately pass on the information to employees. HR professionals take the lead on well-being of workers and awareness about the benefits of CBT and natural therapy could lead to improvement in policies and practices (Khoreva & Wechtler, 2018). In addition, the health care professionals are the most important audience as the program has been designed keeping employee’s psychological well-being needs in mind.

Evidence-Based Approaches For Addressing The Problem

There are many evidence based practices that shows the role of therapeutic communication, psychological assessment and interventions like CBT in treating the symptom of stress and burnout among nurses. Some of the list of evidence based approach to treatment is as follows:

1. Exercise has been identified as a highly recommended strategy to improve mood and address fatigue among health care employees. According to a study by Song et al. (2019), daily exercise for 30 minutes among a group of anaesthesiologist was associated with decrease in physical fatigue and improvement in negative psychological state. In addition, Freitas et al. (2014) implemented a five days per week workplace physical activity program and found improvement in feelings of fatigue and perceptions of bodily pain among health care professionals.
2. Mindfulness meditation is a widely used strategy to promote wellness and performance among health care workers. A pilot study by Liu and Rice (2019)used two types of intervention. One intervention included background music with meditation and meditation with silences. Highest ranking based on preference selection was given to silence as it supported participants to integrate body and soul. The systematic review by Kriakous et al. (2020) revealed the effectiveness of mindfulness based stress reduction in improving psychological function of health care professionals. It was found to be an effective intervention that improves the quality of life of people.
3. The effect of proper diet on improving stress level has been found too. A randomized controlled trial established the benefits of a brief diet intervention on reducing symptoms of depression in young adults. By comparison of outcome in diet group receiving 3 week brief diet intervention and a control group receiving habitual diet, it was found that there is lower risk of depressive symptoms in participants. Improvement were noted on anxiety and stress related subscales too (Francis et al., 2014).
4. The influence of vitamins, herbal supplements and essential oils on the alleviation of symptoms have been found too. For instance, depressive or stress symptoms result in imbalance in normal body functioning. The study by Han, Eggett and Parker (2018)reported that participants who used herbal supplements or vitamins had improvement in mood, energy and mental clarity. In addition, many biochemical improvements were found too. For example, it resulted in blood glucose regulation and improved cardiovascular health. Long and Benton (2013) argues that micronutrient supplementation is associated with beneficial effect on perceived stress, psychiatric symptoms and mood.
5. Ginseng is a common medicinal herb used in Korea, Japan and China. It was found to contain natural anti-oxidant that has great effect of stress response. It is regarded as an adaptogen to treat illness. It has been found as a superior adaptogen to regulate stress compared to other adaptogens. Ginseng can effectively defend against oxidative stress. Thus, this could act as a secondary prevention strategy to alleviate stress and burnout among health care professionals (Lee & Rhee, 2017).
6. The effect of group of CBT on nurse burnout has been explored in the study by Bagheri et al. (2019). A semi-experimental study was designed with pre-test and post-test design. After the implementation of the intervention, significant improvement in burnout symptoms was found. The positive effect of the intervention was sustained for a month. In addition, it has the implication to use CBT as a counseling service for nurses in health care setting.

Collaborative Efforts Needed For The Program:

To increase the success of the program in promoting psychological health of employees, collaborative efforts are needed by health care professionals and upper management staffs too. For example, along with the integration of CBT with natural therapy, health leaders should pay attention to creating ideal work environment for staffs. For example, issues like stress and burnout occur because of long shift hours and excess workload. Hence, health leaders need to create a stressful culture for health professionals so that they get interested in joining the program. This may involve collaborating with HR professionals to modify recruitment policies and bringing changes in shift timing. This could lead to better distribution of workload and better outcomes for health employees even after leaving the CBT therapy.

In addition, motivational programs should be arranged for health workers so that take interest in their own health and well-being. Health care professionals are so busy with clinical work that they hardly get time for breaks. Hence, weekly motivational programs can be arranged so that they take interest in their mental health too. Aryankhesal et al. (2019) supports that motivational programs such as gratitude and thankful events are new approach to motivation and encouragement that could improve burnout and well-being.

Two Resources Linked To The Program:

Two resources that can help in the successful implementation of the program are use of information handouts or self-help guides and simple exercise related tools. Information handout and self-help guides would help in giving brief overview of the intervention of the program to employees. It would give them details about basic coping strategies on a daily basis. It will also provide updates on how participant who experience serious depressive symptoms can take part in rehabilitation program. In addition, exercise tools would be beneficial in implementing natural therapy as part of stress management program. Based on individual preferences, appropriate exercise tools can be used by employees during the program.  

References

Aryankhesal, A., Mohammadibakhsh, R., Hamidi, Y., Alidoost, S., Behzadifar, M., Sohrabi, R., & Farhadi, Z. (2019). Interventions on reducing burnout in physicians and nurses: A systematic review. Medical journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 33, 77.

Bagheri, T., Fatemi, M. J., Payandan, H., Skandari, A., & Momeni, M. (2019). The effects of stress-coping strategies and group cognitive-behavioral therapy on nurse burnout. Annals of burns and fire disasters, 32(3), 184.

Chou, L. P., Li, C. Y., & Hu, S. C. (2014). Job stress and burnout in hospital employees: comparisons of different medical professions in a regional hospital in Taiwan. BMJ open, 4(2).

De Hert, S. (2020). Burnout in Healthcare Workers: Prevalence, Impact and Preventative Strategies. Local and Regional Anesthesia, 13, 171.

Elbarazi, I., Loney, T., Yousef, S., & Elias, A. (2017). Prevalence of and factors associated with burnout among health care professionals in Arab countries: a systematic review. BMC health services research, 17(1), 1-10.

Francis, H. M., Stevenson, R. J., Chambers, J. R., Gupta, D., Newey, B., & Lim, C. K. (2019). A brief diet intervention can reduce symptoms of depression in young adults–A randomised controlled trial. PloS one, 14(10), e0222768.

Freitas, A. R., Carneseca, E. C., Paiva, C. E., & Paiva, B. S. R. (2014). Impact of a physical activity program on the anxiety, depression, occupational stress and burnout syndrome of nursing professionals. Revista latino-americana de enfermagem, 22(2), 332-336.

Han, X., Eggett, D. L., & Parker, T. L. (2018). Evaluation of the Health Benefits of a Multivitamin, Multimineral, Herbal, Essential Oil–Infused Supplement: A Pilot Trial. Journal of Dietary Supplements, 15(2), 153–160. https://doi-org.proxy1.ncu.edu/10.1080/19390211.2017.1331943

Khoreva, V., & Wechtler, H. (2018). HR practices and employee performance: the mediating role of well-being. Employee Relations.

Kriakous, S. A., Elliott, K. A., Lamers, C., & Owen, R. (2020). The effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction on the psychological functioning of healthcare professionals: A systematic review. Mindfulness, 1-28.

Lee, S., & Rhee, D. K. (2017). Effects of ginseng on stress-related depression, anxiety, and the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis. Journal of ginseng research, 41(4), 589-594.

Liu, B., & Rice, V. J. (2019). A pilot study investigating preferred background sounds during mindfulness meditation: What would you like to hear? Work, 63(2), 155–163. https://doi-org.proxy1.ncu.edu/10.3233/WOR-192917

Long, S. J., & Benton, D. (2013). Effects of vitamin and mineral supplementation on stress, mild psychiatric symptoms, and mood in nonclinical samples: a meta-analysis. Psychosomatic medicine, 75(2), 144-153.

Shariatkhah, J., Farajzadeh, Z., & Khazaee, K. (2017). The effects of cognitive-behavioral stress management on nurses’ job stress. Iranian journal of nursing and midwifery research, 22(5), 398.

Song, B., Yang, Y., Bai, W., Li, Z., Wan, J., Teng, X., Shao, J., Ji, F., Dong, H., & Zhu, J. (2019). Effect of physical exercise on young anesthesiologists with on-call-related fatigue. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 24(9), 1055–1062.  

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