Coping and Support

Strategies
Garland Herridge
October 22,2010
HCA/230
Introduction
Coping strategies and social support may tend to have
similarities. For instance a person may cope with stress by
taking steps to improve the situation, learn more, seek the
company of a loved one, have a good cry, or talk about it. The
activities listed above can be characterized into two social
support types which are: action-facilitating support, and
nurturing support.
Types of Action-Facilitating Support

Instrumental Support
• Instrumental Support: tasks and favors.

Information Support
• Information Support: performing internet data search, sharing
personal experiences, and so forth
Nurturing Support
Nurturing Support is simply building self esteem,
acknowledging and expressing emotions, and providing
companionship.
Types of Nurturing Support
ESTEEM
Support

Nurturing
Support

EMOTIONAL SOCIAL
Support Network
Esteem Support
Esteem support involves efforts top make a distressed
individual feel valued and completend.
Emotional Support
Emotional Support includes efforts to acknowledge
and understand what another person is feeling.
Social Network Support
Social Network Support involves ongoing relationships
maintained even when no crisis exist.
Conclusion
There are two types of social support: action-facilitating support and nurturing support. Action
facilitating support is performing tasks and favors. Nurturing support is building self-esteem.
Acknowledging and expressing emotions and providing companionship (Curtona &
Suhr1994). The two types of action facilitating support are instrumental and information
support. Instrumental support are task and favors. Information support involves performing an
internet data search, sharing personal experience and so forth. Nurturing support involves three
types of support: Esteem, emotional, and social network. Esteem support involves efforts to
make a distressed individual feel valued and competent. Emotional support includes efforts to
acknowledge and understand what another individual is feeling. Social network support
involves ongoing relationships maintained even when no crisis exists. Common sources of
social support may include family members, friends, professional support groups, virtual
communities, and self help literature. These suggestions are for facilitating social support in a
variety of contexts.
References
Axia College(2004) Chapter7:Social Support retrieved from Axia College, HCA/230 website.