Managing Stress: Insights for Community Health Workers and Clients (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Tim Berthold, and I'm a teacher at City College of San Francisco.

Speaker 2: And I'm Jill Treger, also an instructor at City College of San Francisco. We wanted to talk today about stress, and not just the stress that a community health worker feels, but the stress that a client can experience. Stress is so much a part of chronic conditions, and we really think that you can help a client in managing that stress.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that being able to help clients recognize that stress is unavoidable, helping them to understand what a huge contributing factor it is in chronic conditions, in depression, in diabetes, and eventually working with them to help them build on what they already know how to do to better manage the stress.

Speaker 2: I think if you ask a client what are some things you do to relax, even if they haven't often taken the time to relax, they do know some things that they like to do. It might be listening to music, it might be taking a walk, but I think having a CHW really support that, encourage that, and say, I am concerned for your health, and I think part of how to take care of yourself can be to make sure you're monitoring your own stress is a great thing.

Speaker 1: Yeah, and it doesn't need to be like you're going to go to a meditation class, or if you've never meditated before, suddenly you're going to do it, and you're going to do it 12 times a day. It's really building on what people already know how to do. So I think you mentioned listening to music, and that's a great one. It's a common one for people. And the conversation can just really be about, when's the last time you listened to music? Tell me about the kind of music you like to listen to. Where are you when you listen to it, and what's the effect of listening to music that helps you to better manage stress? It's about sort of growing their awareness, and then asking them to try to put a little bit more into practice each day, starting, if possible, today or tomorrow.

Speaker 2: So I think helping a client think about how they're actually going to de-stress, and then also helping them think about what they can look for in their own body and mind that will tell them that they need to stop for a minute and focus on de-stressing. Both of those things are really important, and I think that they're really easy ways, in a lot of ways, to support a client.

Speaker 1: And at the same time, this can also be a reminder to you that you need to try to practice what you're teaching the client, and take a moment to do what you know how to do to relieve your stress.