Introduction
Stress can cause mental and physical health challenges and affect academic performance in students, hence the need to address it. The stress management program is designed to help college students to be able to cope with stress. The intervention strategies used in this program include health education and some environmental change to decrease the stress level. Be REAL (Resilient Attitudes & Living) teaches cognitive-behavioral coping and emotion regulation skills, such as radical acceptance, balanced decision-making, and cognitive reframing, in addition to contemplative practices such as breathing exercises, Hatha yoga sequences, and guided meditation (Long et al.2021). Students meet once a week for 90 minutes during the 6-week program. Each lesson emphasizes abilities in four areas: lowering stress, controlling emotions, dealing with difficult circumstances, and developing relationships and compassion. Each session will include a group of 20 students. Additionally, Be REAL training model will include staff participation in a 6-week version of Be REAL to experience the program, followed by facilitation training.
Program Implementation
Intervention Adaptations
The program makes adaptations to cognitive behavioral therapy techniques such as cognitive restructuring, relaxation and stress reduction techniques like guided meditation and Hatha yoga sequence and breathing exercises. The primary focus of intervention adaptations includes awareness of the relevant issues leading to students’ stress and awareness of the popular beliefs relating to mental health and well-being. The specific adjustment to CBT therapy techniques will include the use of stories in the health education program to enhance engagement and adjusting therapy techniques to include breathing exercises and muscle relaxation, which have been found to be effective in addressing stress and depression for multiethnic patient groups (Naeem et al., 2019). The rationale for making these intervention adaptations is to make cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) more suitable for the targeted college student population without compromising its core components (Simon et al., 2021).
Program Reach
Over the course of three years, the program will have reached 500 college students from California State University, Northridge and neighboring colleges.
Implementation
The health education program will take place at the university’s conference hall, which is a good therapeutic space for the students due to its enclosed nature and natural lighting, providing them with a feeling of safety and security. The program will be organized in multiple sessions. Each session will accommodate 20 students and last for six weeks, with students meeting once a week at the conference hall for 90 minutes. The 90-minute sessions will cover lessons about controlling emotions, lowering stress, developing relationships, dealing with difficult situations, and incorporating contemplative practices such as Hatha yoga and breathing exercises. The university counsellor will lead the program through collaboration with the school chaplain and students. The first 45 minutes will involve health education which will be facilitated by a professional counsellor, while the second 45 minutes will involve contemplative practices, facilitated by a professional mindfulness practitioner. Thus, the program’s staffing needs will include a professional counselor and a mindfulness practitioner.
Community Engagement
The program will ensure the input of diverse stakeholders such as the university counselor who will be in charge of the program oversight, the university chaplain who will help with the recruitment process, student leaders who will mobilize students to face their mental health issues by seeking health and the university’s management to provide required resources such as therapeutic spaces.
Recruitment and Promotion
The program will reach students through campus partners like the university counselor, religious leaders (chaplain and assistant chaplain) and student group leaders. The program will be promoted through the students’ social media and religious groups to ensure maximum reach to the targeted audience. Also, the program promotion will include incentives such as a free subscription to gym and yoga classes for active members. The rationale for including incentives is to encourage the students to join the program and increase enrolment rates. The program will be championed by influential students like student leaders and athletes.
Timeline
| Time | Activities |
| First Month | Collecting required resources and identifying venue. |
| Second Month | Hiring professional counselor and mindfulness practitioner. |
| Third Month | Obtaining approval from relevant bodies to recruit students. |
| Fourth-Fifth Month | Performing pilot test on sample students |
| Sixth Month | Mobilizing stakeholders to obtain support and recruiting students |
| Sixth Month – 30th Month | Implementing the intervention activities. |
| 30th -32nd Month | Collecting assessment data |
| 33rd Month | Analyzing assessment data |
| 34th and 35th Month | Evaluating program impacts |
| 36th Month | Writing program report. |
References
Naeem, F., Phiri, P., Rathod, S., & Ayub, M. (2019). Cultural adaptation of cognitive–behavioural therapy. BJPsych advances, 25(6), 387-395.
Simon, N. M., Hofmann, S. G., Rosenfield, D., Hoeppner, S. S., Hoge, E. A., Bui, E., & Khalsa, S. B. S. (2021). Efficacy of yoga vs cognitive behavioral therapy vs stress education for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA psychiatry, 78(1), 13-20.
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