01 Apr 2026

Stress Awareness Month

April is Stress Awareness Month, an opportunity for employers to address the challenge of preventing work-related stress in today's workplace.

As part of HSE's Working Minds campaign, which helps to prevent work-related stress and promotes good mental health at work, the HSE is calling on employers across the UK to #BeTheChange.

Work-related stress is one of the leading causes of ill health at work. In 2024/25, nearly 1 million workers reported stress, depression, or anxiety related to their jobs. The impact is significant:

22.1 million working days lost due to stress

50% of all work-related ill health attributed to stress

Stress Awareness Month is an ideal time to focus on wellbeing and take meaningful steps to reduce stress in the workplace. HSE say one helpful approach is the 5Rs framework, which supports everyday stress prevention and encourages managers to build health habits into their routine:

Reach Out: Initiate early conversations about stress.

Recognise: Be alert to signs of stress in your team.

Respond: Take timely, effective action.

Reflect: Evaluate your approach and refine where necessary.

Make it Routine: Embed stress management in daily operations.

There are a range of free resources designed to help managers and teams better understand and address stress. These include the:

HSE’s Management Standards give you a practical framework to tackle the main causes of stress at work, which include demands, control, support, relationships, role, and change.