Increasing recognition of the importance of social support for health has not been accompanied by commensurate increases in knowledge about how to strengthen natural support networks on a large scale. This study evaluated the impact of California's innovative "Friends Can Be Good Medicine" public education campaign in promoting social support. Campaign impact was assessed with pre-, post-, and long-term follow-up interviews with a panel sample of 340 adults in the six county Fresno media market area. Comparisons of exposed and unexposed individuals found that the campaign appeared to have measurable impact on knowledge, attitudes, behavioral intentions, and support enhancing behavior. Follow-up interviews indicated that these gains maintained themselves over the course of a year. The campaign was most effective when it utilized multiple channels of communication. In Fresno City, where there was the most intensive combination of community activities and media exposure, respondents indicating substantial likelihood of engaging in support enhancing behavior increased from 42% to 59% compared to smaller gains in areas which relied primarily on community implementation, and no gains in areas where exposure to the campaign was limited to mass media. The campaign appeared particularly effective with people who had experienced the death of someone close to them during the past year, and within that group, gains were largest among respondents below average in initial levels of social support.
This paper describes Friends Can Be Good Medicine, a multi-media, mental health promotion campaign conducted in 1982 throughout California. The creative design, pilot-test, implementation and results are reviewed. Conceptually, Friends was derived from evidence linking supportive personal relationships with increased physical and mental health. Three major campaign elements were: broadcast media, an array of educational materials, and community activities. Evaluation findings revealed that Friends was most effective when campaign elements reinforced one another. Resulting changes in knowledge, attitudes, and intentions among those reached by Friends were maintained after one year. It is contended that, for better or worse, mass media is part of the health care system.
The paper focuses on the differences in the conceptualisation of stress in the East and the West in the light of differences in the social and cultural context. Modern notions of stress and coping and their Eastern equivalents, such as suffering or dukkha are discussed. While the Western approach is concerned with distress or negative aspects of stress, in Eastern thought, pleasure as well as pain are consid ered stressful and there is a greater degree of acceptance of suffering. While stress researchers have evolved a taxonomy of stress, Indian and Chinese texts focus on the causes of suffering. These include a discussion of types of pain (self and environment generated, supernatural), intense desires and ego involvement or afflictions (klesas). The consequences of suffering such as mental pain, despair and exhaustion are outlined and mediators of suffering which include dharma (right conduct), detachment, impulse control, belief in rebirth and karma and transcendence are discussed. Differing perspectives on coping and stress are presented and the parallels between Eastern and Western coping strategies are drawn. Clearly in the Eastern perspective, long-term strategies such as meditation and development of a philosophy of life are emphasised.
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