“Unstress”: A low-cost community psychology approach to stress-management: An evaluated case study from New Zealand

Abstract

This research concerns an attempt to design and evaluate a 10-week, lay- led, low-cost stress-management program for dissemination at the community level. It is based on community needs assessment, empowerment, community control and other community psychology principles, and is combined with a cognitive-behavioral approach to stress management derived from health psychology. An evaluated trial reported here covers a 5-year period involving 61 groups, 15 leaders, and 448 respondents in 14 different community locations. On all measures, significantly positive results were obtained, and these were maintained or increased over 12-month follow-up. These results, plus the low dropout rate (16%) and high participant satisfaction (90%), suggest that this is a successful program that owes much of its strength to a community psychology approach.