Solutions to Stress by: Theresa Brown
PANDEMIC STRESS PROLIFERATION
We have long known that ongoing stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms are contributors to our overall well-being, impacting both our physical and mental health. Emerging evidence suggests that chronic stress and isolation may be as detrimental to our health as tobacco. This is problematic, especially given COVID-19 and the major disruptions the pandemic has caused to our everyday lives. The number of individuals reporting anxiety, grief, depression, and trauma has increased significantly since the start of the pandemic. Starting in 2007, the American Psychological Association commissioned a national survey to evaluate the country’s state of stress among the general population.
The survey measures stress perceptions, leading sources of stress, and common ways to manage stress. In 2021, in this survey, one in three Americans reported sometimes being so stressed about the pandemic that they struggled to make even basic decisions. Over half of Americans reported that their behaviors have changed for the worse because of the stress they are feeling, including avoiding social contact, altering eating habits, neglecting responsibilities, and altering physical activity levels.
One in three Americans reported sometimes being so stressed about the pandemic that they struggled to make even basic decisions.
Those in healthcare are also facing unprecedented professional and personal challenges that put them at even greater risk of worsening physical and mental health. Burnout was already a challenge in healthcare long before COVID-19, and the current global crisis has only added to the struggles faced.
Providers have unique work demands that exacerbate an already emotionally demanding schedule from struggling to balance work and family responsibilities, disruptions in childcare, expectations to fill staffing shortages and gaps, and being confronted with emotionally charged scenarios through direct patient contact. These stressors impact a provider’s ability to deliver the highest quality of care. Even those healthcare workers not in patient-facing roles feel the effects of routine emotional stressors so that the entire occupational health workforce is impacted.
The National Alliance on Mental Health has estimated that untreated mental illness costs the country over $300 billion every year in losses in productivity not to mention the human suffering caused. People with chronic stress, anxiety, and depression are at increased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, and chronic pain. As the problems cascade, there is evidence that individuals with untreated mental health disorders are at greater risk of early death due to chronic conditions.
Untreated mental illness costs the country over $300 billion every year in losses in productivity not to mention the human suffering caused.
The deleterious influence of chronic stress eventually adds up. Employers report the single most expensive driver of health expenditures in their company is mental disorders and the associated costs. Unaddressed behavioral health needs and related unhealthy coping behaviors can exacerbate the chronic disease process. Patients with chronic disease and concurrent mental health disorders require more healthcare services and cost nearly twice as much as peers without mental health needs. These extra costs are due to factors such as reduced access to preventative care, challenges with self-management techniques, and medical complications. As an example, Tuft Medical Center recently reported that healthcare costs are between $2000-$3000 higher for those employees with diabetes and asymptomatic depression (and $5000 greater for those with symptomatic depression).
In addition to added healthcare expenditures, those employers without solutions to the mental health crisis report declines in work productivity, increases in absenteeism rates, and decreases in presenteeism rates.
SOLUTION TO STRESS
Of course, occupational medicine providers can find it difficult to find time to manage their own stress. While providers recognize the importance of sustaining their own wellness, they often prioritize patient care over self-care. Plus, due to the nature of this pandemic, the tools we rely on to balance the chronic stress in our lives may not be readily available. The pandemic has postponed our ability to take time for ourselves away from work. We are deprived of the joy of looking forward either to the immediate or long-term. It may be difficult to make fun plans when there is a threat that is ever-present. And there’s an added irony that the people we turn to for comfort might also expose us to the threat we’re trying to avoid.
So how are you coping? Regardless of what someone is feeling, recognizing the warning signs of emotional exhaustion and burnout is important. Irritability, trouble sleeping, a loss of joy or lack of motivation, fatigue, changes in activity level, and drinking more than usual are all indicators that someone may need help.
Checking in on one another and relying on our communities and network of friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers is vital. It’s more important than ever to reach out. We need human contact. We need to feel engaged and connected to others. And we need to practice good self-care. It is vital to our well-being. And it is vital to our care of others.
Occupational medicine providers can find it difficult to find time to manage their own stress.
Rather than rely on self-discipline and an innate ability to bounce back from the negative impacts of stress, the National Association of Occupational Health Professionals (NAOHP) recognizes the importance of proactively addressing stress management as part of the Total Person Health approach. Behavioral health experts know that when no good strategies are in place, we turn to unhelpful things to help us cope, such as unhealthy foods, sedentary activities, poor sleep hygiene, and other unhealthy substances such as alcohol. Left unchecked, these patterns of unhealthy choices will continue to proliferate and will become more and more challenging to correct the longer they persist. Occupational medicine providers are uniquely positioned to effectively lead organizations to Total Person Health by acknowledging wider social issues, highlighting their effect on the work and home environment, and providing resources and support. Staying connected to others is critical during the pandemic and, in fact, having support from others is one of the best predictors of human resilience during challenging times. While individuals are ultimately responsible for how they handle stress, it is urgent that we prioritize the mental well-being of our healthcare providers. It is also just as critical that employers provide solutions that will help their employees manage their chronic stress so as to mitigate risk in their populations.
Occupational medicine providers are uniquely positioned to effectively lead organizations to Total Person Health
TRESTLETREE HEALTH COACHING FOR STRESS MANAGEMENT
TrestleTree Health Coaching is an effective solution to help minimize the immediate harm and prevent the long-term health impact of chronic stress. TrestleTree understands the influence stress has on health, and by focusing on the whole person, stress and other health conditions are tackled simultaneously. TrestleTree has extensive experience working with benefits departments, occupational health, safety, and health systems (e.g., clinics, hospitals, and health plans) and forming a bridge between these.
Our partnership helps clients provide effective services to improve the health, well-being, performance, and safety of employees. And, in the actualization of the NAOHP initiative around Total Person Health, TrestleTree has always extended these benefits to the family members of employees, knowing that optimal health and performance are based on a multitude of factors outside of work for the employee and their family.
With a foundation in Psychology from our inception and the use of Ph.D. Psychologists for training, TrestleTree embodies the aims of Total Person Health by attending to psychosocial factors, addressing social determinants of health, being proactive and not just reactive around health, and helping people change within the unique context of their lives. Our Health Coaches are focused on protecting workers from the occupational and non-occupational stressors of everyday life with the ultimate aim of advancing their health and well-being. TrestleTree’s expertise is creating sustainable behavior change across the continuum of risk, especially for those with low motivation. As a seasoned solution, TrestleTree offers a win-win opportunity to address the stress management needs of the current working force while improving employee health and well-being to address the rising costs of healthcare needs.
As part of the coaching process, employees identify causes for their stress and develop and implement stress management techniques and coping strategies. TrestleTree Health Coaches are equipped to help individuals address the messiness of life and incorporate activities that promote thriving, designed to make individuals feel more resilient, better able to focus on their work and cultivate a lifestyle that promotes health and longevity. A benefit of health coaching is to recognize that no matter what challenges life throws at us, we can develop effective stress management techniques to combat these challenges. Individual’s stress management responses determine how much they are set back and whether they are set back at all. Together, TrestleTree Health Coaches help individuals reflect on what can and cannot be controlled, identify where energy is being spent in ineffective ways, and develop anchoring techniques so that ongoing stressful events do not ultimately cost individuals their health and happiness.
TrestleTree Health Coaches are equipped to help individuals address the messiness of life and incorporate activities that promote thriving.
With over 20 years of history and experience, TrestleTree is committed and well-equipped to partner with employers, health systems, and occupational medicine clinics to extend and deepen their reach, presence, and impact, as well as support the transition to Total Person Health. TrestleTree welcomes the opportunity to discuss partnerships with your organization, build this expertise into the workings of occupational medicine, and extend your value and impact. TrestleTree stands ready to collaborate and transition to Total Person Health for the betterment of health and wellness in your thriving organizations.
