GROWING ROSE - AN ONLINE TOOL AIMED AT REDUCING OCCUPATIONAL STRESS IN EMPLOYMENT

Occupational stress is a major source of illness in the workforce across the European Union (EU). The prevention and management of occupational stress are central to supporting employee well-being. However, in the mental health and intellectual disability rehabilitative sector there appears to be limited stress management supports that are easily accessible for managers and staff. This paper details the development and investigates the subsequent adoption of an online application aimed at Reducing Occupational Stress in Employment (ROSE).

ROSE, an EU Leonardo de Vinci funded project led by Waterford Institute of Technology, involved the collaboration of health care professionals across Europe to develop an accessible and user-friendly online application consisting of a number of self-directed person and work directed learning sessions. The content of the learning sessions were specifically developed for all staff working with people with mental health problems and people with intellectual disabilities. These SCORM compliant learning packages were developed using Articulate and delivered through Moodle, an open source Virtual Learning Environment. Users can login to ROSE in their own time, at home or at work, and work through the learning sessions at their own pace. The learning content was designed to help them understand when, how and why they feel stressed. Once users are able to identify that they are stressed, they can then apply appropriate techniques to bring their stress under control.

Users were required to complete a pre-evaluation questionnaire before interacting with the learning sessions. An additional questionnaire will be completed before the pilot finishes in September 2010 to assess whether users stress levels have reduced as a result of using the online application.

While publically available, the ROSE application for the pilot was targeted at staff in each of the project partner countries (Ireland, United Kingdom, Italy, Austria, Belgium and Romania) and available in English, Romanian, Italian, and German. Various dissemination strategies were employed to encourage uptake and usage of ROSE by staff working with people with mental health problems and people with intellectual disabilities across the partner countries. Preliminary quantitative analytical analysis has indicated that there is a mixed uptake with varying levels of adoption among the partner countries.

The paper details the development of the online application and investigates the subsequent level of usage and adoption.

The ROSE online application is available at http://www.leonardorose.eu