Managing Stress for Health and Wellness

The "Managing Stress for Health and Wellness" presentation educates students about the types and sources of stress, how stress affects their life (academics, health, and personal life) and how they can address it in a healthy way. Interactive activities and discussion help students identify personal sources of stress, examine how they tend to react to stress, learn skills/techniques for dealing with stress, understand when stress has become too overwhelming, and identify on-campus resources to help them cope with stress in a healthy way.

Learning Outcomes

The Managing Stress for Health and Wellness presentation supports University 101 learning outcomes:

I. Foster Academic Success
a. Identify and apply appropriate academic strategies to their courses and learning experiences.
University of South Carolina students report stress as their number one impediment to academic success.  Time management and prioritization are often two of the reasons that students become stressed.  Throughout this presentation, the Changing Carolina Peer Leaders will discuss stress management and time management skills in great detail.  Furthermore, there is an entire section of the presentation dedicated to skill development.

II. Help Students Discover and Connect With the University of South Carolina
a. Identify appropriate campus resources and opportunities that contribute to their educational experience, goals, and campus engagement.
One of the final sections of this presentation deals entirely with campus resources.  We include resources that are unique to Student Health Services and Campus Wellness, while also highlighting resources around campus (Student Success Center, Career Center, Library, Campus Recreation, etc) that are crucial for maintaining academic success and campus engagement.

As a result of attending this presentation students will:

• Define stress and understand the different ways stress can be conceptualized.
• Identify personal sources of stress and reflect upon how students currently cope or react to stressors.
• Identify signs of anxiety and depression and understand when levels of stress have become too high or too difficult to manage.
• Identify campus resources available to help students manage stress in a healthy way.
• Identify at least one specific skills/resource/technique they can start using immediately to manage stress and better cope with daily hassles.

Presentation Outline

1. Primary prevention (30 minutes)
   1. Presenter introductions & scale completion
   2. What is stress?
   3. Stress/tension management techniques
2. Secondary Prevention (5 minutes)
   1. When stress becomes unmanageable
   2. Signs of anxiety, depression, and suicide
3. Resources and concluding messages (15 minutes)
   1. Skill development
   2. Campus resources
   3. Conclusion

Presentation Length
50 minutes