Stress Awareness Month 2022

Increasing awareness and combating workplace stress

Stress Awareness Month is coming this April and it's a great chance to raise awareness about the causes and cures of stress.

Despite this event running for 20 years, millions of us around the UK are experiencing high levels of stress and it can be incredibly damaging to our health. Nevertheless, in reality it is still widely viewed as something less concerning than physical health issues.

Stress is a big contributor to mental health conditions like anxiety and depression. It's even linked to physical health issues like heart disease and immune system problems. If we want to combat stress we first need to understand individually what it is that's making us stressed and take steps to reduce it for ourselves and for those around us.

According to educationsupport.org, 82% of teachers describe themselves as stressed (March 2021). Read on for advice and guidance on how to handle stress, and how to teach about it in the classroom.

How To Combat Stress

It’s easy to become stressed but difficult to do something about it. Here are some ways that stress can be combated in the workplace:

Start conversations about stress and its effects - talking about stress with colleagues will reduce the stigma around it and help to create an open culture within the workplace.
Introduce a stress policy - having a school stress policy will inform staff, help them understand more about stress, and help staff know what to do in times of stress and give a list of reasonable adjustments that can be made. This could also be included in a staff wellbeing policy.
Conduct a workplace stress risk assessment - this will help in identifying areas of the workplace that are particularly stressful so that measures can be put in place to minimise the risk of stress.
Help others - encourage staff to help others by sharing coping mechanisms, being compassionate and being empathetic. Helping others can even take your mind off your own struggles.
Signpost information and services - direct staff towards a trade union representative, GP, headteacher or occupational health team.
Look after yourself - self-care is extremely valuable when it comes to preventing and easing stress. Encourage colleagues to take time out of every day to relax or do something they enjoy, like going for a walk, engaging in a hobby or even having a cup of tea. Exercising and eating well can also help.
Don’t take on work or requests that are too much - learn to say no and create work boundaries, and for line managers, make sure individual workloads are managed and balanced effectively.

How To Teach About Stress

Stress can be very challenging for children and young people. They may become stressed because of family problems, school work, peer pressure, bullying, and because of bodily and emotional changes. Teaching about it and providing pupils with ways to cope can make a massive difference to their mental health and can be part of the PSHE curriculum.

In these lessons, teaching staff can:

Start a conversation - talking about stress is an important first step towards managing it and reducing the stigma around it.
Reassure and affirm - help pupils realise it’s normal to feel stressed and people are around to support them when they feel overwhelmed.
Teach stress management techniques - like emotion regulation strategies, breathing techniques and mindfulness. Encourage pupils to share their own ways of coping with stress.
Signpost - navigate pupils towards useful mental health resources, a GP and school counselling services.
Encourage self-care - remind pupils to look after themselves and make time for self-care sessions, whether that’s going for a walk, watching a film or taking a nap.
Show empathy and sensitivity - pupils may be having a hard time so make sure topics are treated sensitively and professionally.
Intervention - teachers and school staff know when to intervene and who to report to if they are concerned for a pupil.

Symptoms of Stress and Burnout

At work, there are many factors and characteristics that are indicators of stress. These can be behavioural, physical, and/or emotional, including:

Becoming withdrawn
Becoming more accident-prone
Becoming short-tempered
A dramatic change in weight or appetite

Stress can also manifest itself in an organisation as:

High staff turnover
Increased absenteeism and levels of sickness
Employees not taking their full holiday entitlement
A culture of long work hours and over-time
Low productivity and efficiency

Burnout is different from stress. It is a state of physical and emotional exhaustion and can occur when you experience long-term stress, or have been physically or emotionally drained for a long period of time. Common signs of burnout include:

Feeling tired or drained the majority of the time
Feeling helpless, trapped and/or defeated
Procrastination and low productivity
Feeling detached or alone in the world
Self-doubt and low self-confidence
Having a cynical or negative outlook on life
Feeling overwhelmed

It’s important that signs of stress and burnout are taken seriously and that actions are taken to help before they develop into stress-related illnesses.