Stress Management Delivered Over Public Television: Steps Toward Promoting Community Mental Health

} make service delivery more cost effective, and (2) provide intervention prior to the crisis stage. Media, particularly television, have long been thought of as means of providing information, influencing beliefs and attitudes, and changing behavior. Advertising personnel have developed numerous effective campaigns to inform the public and direct it toward a myriad of goods and services. It is not surprising, then, that in the past several years psychologists and mental health workers have begun to explore the use of television as a tool for large-scale, preventive health care. Television enables fewer professionals to reach a greater number of clients/consumers, thereby potentially reducing delivery costs. Additionally, television reaches individuals in their own environment, thereby enhancing the likelihood that information on positive health patterns and lifestyle changes will be conveyed before major problems arise. Television can also reach those individuals who might not otherwise seek professional assistance. A number of studies have been conducted to evaluate health promotion campaigns delivered over television. Different health-risk behaviors have been targeted for change in different studies. Some of the targeted behaviors have included smoking {Best, 1980; Dubren, 1977; Farquhar, Wood, Breitos, Haskell, Meyer, Maccoby, Alexander, Brown, McAlister, Nash & Stern, 1977; McAlister, Puska, Koskela, Pallonen & Maccoby, 1980}, diet {Ramadasmuthy, Rao, Clarence & Balasubramanian, 1978; Stern, Farquhar, Maccoby & Russell, 1976}, hypertertion ISerVaas & Weinberger, 1979), and stress {Lowenstein & Robyak, 1979}. Unfortunately, most of the researchers either failed to incorporate a no-treatment control group into their design, or else their interventions were multimedia campaigns and the resea