Stress Awareness Month 2024
This year, the theme is #LittleByLittle
The phrase #LittleByLittle underscores the profound impact of consistent, incremental positive actions on overall wellbeing. In observance of Stress Awareness Month 2024, which takes place this month (April), The Stress Management Society aims to underscore how even the slightest daily strides toward self-care and stress reduction can yield significant enhancements in mental health over time.
They advocate for concentrating on making feasible adjustments to one's daily routine. While the effects of small actions in isolation may appear trivial, the compounded effects of these habits soon will make a real change.
Small actions, though seemingly minor, serve as the cornerstone of your mental wellbeing. As you continue to add more bricks, your mental health edifice starts to take form. Each brick symbolises a deliberate decision to prioritise and fortify your mental health and resilience. Together, they confer strength and steadiness, rendering you more resilient to life's challenges.
Absences caused by stress
In 2022, TES published an article revealing that "stress is causing more staff-related absences than COVID." It's widely acknowledged in the education sector that being a teacher isn't devoid of stress. Teachers grapple with mounting workloads, supporting students, and contending with the lingering effects of the pandemic. A staggering 77% of 3,000 education staff reported experiencing symptoms of poor mental health as a result of their work. Managing stress is crucial to reducing cost and HR management time as it keeps staff in attendance and ensures students are taught by the same staff regularly, not by cover staff.
HSE Initiatives
The HSE encourages schools to make Stress Awareness Month the month you make it routine to prevent stress and support mental health at work - and encourage others in health and social care too.
They are inviting employers and managers to complete the 5 steps of their Working Minds campaign over the course of the month - whether that’s learning how, or actually getting stuck in.
5 steps in 5 weeks
- Reach out and have conversations
- Recognise the signs and causes of stress
- Respond to any risks identified by agreeing on action points
- Reflect on the actions taken – have things improved?
- Make it Routine to check back in on how things are going
Getting started
The most important step is getting started – taking the first step to start the conversation or get prepared to.
You can have conversations individually or in groups or teams, the key thing is to recognise any common stressors or issues being raised. You might also gather information such as sickness absence records and staff survey results if you have them.
6 main areas can lead to work-related stress if they are not managed properly:
- Demands
- Control
- Support
- Relationships
- Role
- Change
If you’re finding it difficult to know where to start, see the Talking Toolkit for a step-by-step approach of what to ask and some ideas of what to do next.
Handsam Resources
Handsam can offer a wide range of resources to help schools deal with stress:
Handsam E-training Course: Managing Stress