Primary Interventions
Primary interventions are aimed at eliminating the stressors, or in the least to reduce the influence of the stressor. Non-work related primary interventions are not in the remit of a manager. Indeed, a manager who enquires about the personal life of one of his or her staff can find problems related to discrimination or harassment. It is the sole responsibility of us as individuals to initiate primary interventions for non-work related stressors although there are many sources of help and advice should we choose to seek them.
In contrast the manager of a work team does have responsibilities for primary interventions for work-related stressors. The 1999 HSE Management Guidelines says that if a stressor can be eliminated then it must be and that a manager should operate a principle of prevention.
Primary interventions can range from the streamlining of workflow through the team, through to team building exercises to improve relationships in the team. There is a world of possibilities when it comes to primary interventions and which interventions will work depends on the nature and the intensity of the stressor. Usually it is a good idea to do a stress audit in order to highlight the particular stressors that need targeting with primary interventions.
Primary level intervention is ambitious. Interventions take a long time to organise and they can cost quite a lot of money both in terms of resource requirements and in people’s time. It is also difficult to measure their effectiveness. But, to address work stress at source by looking at underlying causes (which organisations should be doing), then primary level interventions are critical.
Secondary Interventions
Secondary interventions are aimed at improving people’s ability to cope. There are many ways in which trainers and practitioners can help people to improve their resilience. We concentrate on:
- Cognitive resilience
- Personality management
- Lifestyle Management
Tertiary Interventions
These are rehabilitative services that are offered to people who are suffering from stress and who need to be rehabilitated back to full health and fitness. Our GP is a tertiary intervention service, as is occupational health and counselling. Many professionals working in tertiary services also offer management advice to help alleviate the causes of stress. For example, an employee assistance programme will normally report management information on a regular basis showing trends in absence and other gross statistics.
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