Managing Stress: A Comprehensive Programme to Support Young People

Managing Stress provides a comprehensive programme to support young people in coping with stress. It is an important publication given the current focus on the prevention of mental health difficulties in line with the government’s wellbeing agenda.

The sessions in this programme have been designed to:

• Increase self-esteem, self-concept, cooperation and empathy
• Enable students to understand how a positive attitude towards change can minimise stress
• Understand the nature and causes of stress, and how stress is person-specific
• Enable students to recognise their own optimum stress levels
• Recognise reactions and behaviours which both reduce and increase stress
• Develop joint problem-solving skills within a supportive framework
• Understand the importance of emotional support in coping effectively with stress
• Understand how a healthy lifestyle can reduce stress
• Develop the ability to organise work and social agendas to reduce stress
• Understand the difference between aggression and assertion
• Develop and practise assertiveness skills, understanding how such skills can help manage stress
• Understand how stress can adversely affect muscles and breathing
• Increase students' levels of confidence in social interactions and in their own ability to cope
• Develop skills of reflection
• Enable students to set realistic and considered personal goals