Promoting Resilience

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What factors promote resilience?

Resilience involves the modification of a person's response to a potentially risky situation. People who are resilient are able to maintain high self-esteem and self-efficacy in spite of the challenges they face. By fostering resilience, people are building psychological defenses against stress. The more resources and defenses available during a time of struggle, the better able to cope and bounce back from adverse circumstances people will be. A person's ability to regain a sense of normalcy or define a new normalcy after adverse circumstances will be partially based on the resources available to him or her. Resilience building can begin at any time. Following is information regarding types of resilience, the qualities of which each type consists, factors that can inhibit or enhance resilience, and people who help facilitate the growth of resilience (this table was adapted from Kelly, 2007¹).

Risk and Resilience Factors
Signs of This Type of Resilience	Vulnerability Factors Inhibiting Resilience	Protective Factors Enhancing Resilience	Facilitators of Resilience
Individual Resilience: The ability for an individual to cope with adversity and change
Optimism Flexibility Self-confidence Competence Insightfulness Perseverance Perspective Self-control Sociability	Poor social skills Poor problem-solving Lack of empathy Family violence Abuse or neglect Divorce or partner breakup Death or loss Lack of social support	Social competence Problem-solving skills Good coping skills Empathy Secure or stable family Supportive relationships Intellectual abilities Self-efficacy Communication skills	Individuals Parents Grandparents Caregivers Children Adolescents Friends Partners Spouses Teachers Faith community
Organizational Resilience: The ability for a business or industry, including its employees, to cope with adversity and change
Proactive employees Clear mission, goals, and values Encourages opportunities to influence change Clear communication Nonjudgmental Emphasizes learning Rewards high performance	Unclear expectations Conflicted expectations Threat to job security Lack of personal control Hostile atmosphere Defensive atmosphere Unethical environment Lack of communication	Open communication Supportive colleagues Clear responsibilities Ethical environment Sense of control Job security Supportive management Connectedness among departments Recognition	Employers Managers Directors Employees Employee assistance programs Other businesses
Community Resilience: The ability for an individual and the collective community to respond to adversity and change
Connectedness Commitment to community Shared values Structure, roles, and responsibilities exist throughout community Supportive Good communication Resource sharing Volunteerism Responsive organizations Strong schools	Lack of support services Social discrimination Cultural discrimination Norms tolerating violence Deviant peer group Low socioeconomic status Crime rate Community disorganization Civil rivalry	Access to support services Community networking Strong cultural identity Strong social support systems Norms against violence Identification as a community Cohesive community leadership	Community leaders Faith-based organizations Volunteers Nonprofit organizations Churches/houses of worship Support services staff Teachers Youth groups Boy/Girl Scouts Planned social networking events

How is personal resilience built?

Developing resilience is a personal journey. People do not react the same way to traumatic events. Some ways to build resilience include the following actions:

Making connections with others
Looking for opportunities for self-discovery
Nurturing a positive view of self
Accepting that change is a part of living
Taking decisive actions
Learning from the past

The ability to be flexible is a great skill to obtain and facilitates resilience growth. Getting help when it is needed is crucial to building resilience. It is important to try to obtain information on resilience from books or other publications, self-help or support groups, and online resources.

What can be done to promote family resilience?

Developing family resilience, like individual resilience, is different for every family. The important idea to keep in mind is that an underlying stronghold of family resilience is cohesion, a sense of belonging, and communication. It is important for a family to feel that when their world is unstable they have each other. This sense of bonding and trust is what fuels a family's ability to be resilient. Families that learn how to cope with challenges and meet individual needs are more resilient to stress and crisis. Healthy families solve problems with cooperation, creative brainstorming, openness to others, and emphasis on the role of social support and connectedness (versus isolation) in family resiliency. Resilience is exercised when family members demonstrate behaviors such as confidence, hard work, cooperation, and forgiveness. These are factors that help families withstand stressors throughout the family life cycle.

How is community resilience fostered?

Fostering community resilience will greatly depend on the community itself and involves the community working as a whole toward preparedness. It is the capacity for the collective to take preemptive action toward preparedness. Community resilience involves the following factors:

Connection and caring
Collective resources
Critical analysis of the community
Skill building for community members
Prevention, preparedness, and response to stressful events

Resilience is exercised when community members demonstrate behaviors such as confidence, hard work, cooperation, and resourcefulness, and support of those who have needs during particular events. These are factors that help communities withstand challenging circumstances.

Developing resilience is a personal journey. All people do not react identically to traumatic and stressful life events. An approach to building resilience that works for one person might not work for another. People use varying strategies. Resilience involves maintaining flexibility and balance in life during stressful circumstances and traumatic events. Being resilient does not mean that a person does not experience difficulty or distress. Emotional pain and sadness are common in people who have suffered major adversity or trauma in their lives. Stress can be dealt with proactively by building resilience to prepare for stressful circumstances, while learning how to recognize symptoms of stress. Fostering resilience or the ability to bounce back from a stressful situation is a proactive mechanism to managing stress.

Reference

Kelly, S. (2007). Personal and community resilience: Building it and sustaining it [PowerPoint Presentation]. Retrieved August 6, 2021, from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources website: https://dhhr.wv.gov

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). (n.d.). Resilience and stress management: Resilience. Rockville, MD: SAMHSA.