Stress Awareness Month

Every year the Stress Management Society runs a campaign to help employers and employees recognise and reduce stress, fostering a happier, healthier, and more resilient world. 

Stress Awareness Month is an annual event observed every April since 1992, dedicated to increasing public awareness about the causes and cures of stress.

The primary aims of Stress Awareness Month are to:

• Educate people about the causes and effects of stress.
• Actively promote effective stress management techniques to enhance mental health and wellbeing.
• Encourage open conversations to reduce the stigma surrounding stress and mental health issues.
• Provide resources, information and support to help individuals and organisations manage stress effectively.

In 2025, the theme for Stress Awareness Month is “Lead With Love”, which aims to encourage everyone ‘to approach ourselves and others with kindness, compassion, and acceptance, regardless of the challenges we face’.

During this important awareness campaign, the Stress Management Society are encouraging supporters, partners and visitors to normalise talking about stress and mental health, and to take time to identify the root cause(s) and address them not only within their own organisation, but also across their supply chains and networks, and not just during April, but throughout the year. This will help to address the stigma that is sometimes associated with stress and mental health and therefore give people the confidence to start a conversation about it.

We know that stress at work can have a devastating impact on someone and that it can have life changing repercussions for them as well as their family, friends and colleagues.

Why Should You Join In?

Stress affects everyone, but together, we can make a difference. By participating in Stress Awareness Month 2025, you’ll experience numerous benefits:

We also know that in 2023/24 there were 776,000 cases of work-related stress, depression or anxiety. Stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 46% of all work-related ill-health cases and 55% of all working days lost due to work-related ill-health.

The main work factors cited as causing work-related stress, depression or anxiety include the demands of the job, lack of control, lack of information and support, work relationships, and roles and responsibilities.

Employers have a legal duty to protect workers from stress at work by completing a risk assessment. Employers should assess the risk of stress, and its impact on mental and physical ill-health, in the same way as you assess other work-related health and safety risks.

If you have fewer than five employees, you don’t have to write anything down. But it is useful to do this, so you can review it later, for example if something changes. If you have five or more employees, you are required by law to write the risk assessment down.

Any paperwork you produce should help you communicate and manage the risks in your business. For most people this does not need to be a big exercise – just note the main points about the significant risks and what you decided.

Your risk assessment will help you to identify potential risks to your workers from stress and to take action to protect them. You could review policies on bullying, harassment, and discrimination, and check that your first aid needs assessment considers physical and mental health needs.

If you require any help or guidance to assess the risks in these areas to manage stress in the workplace, please contact Spectra to discuss how we can assist?