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HSE’s Stress Conference – 30th October 2003

On 30th October 2003 at the Millennium Conference Centre in London the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) launched its “Tackling Work-Related Stress” initiative. Opening the Stress Conference, Sandra Caldwell (HSE, Co-Director of Policy Group), welcomed the packed audience of over 500 representatives from all areas of commerce, and commented that the take-up of the conference had been the fastest of any conference that the HSE had hosted.

Why so much interest in the Stress Conference?
Des Browne (Minister of State for Work and Penions), who addressed the Conference, highlighted the statistics, from research undertaken by the HSE, of the cost of work-place stress, and they are staggering. (HSE) state that around 5 million people in the UK feel “very” or “extremely” stressed with around half a million people a year suffering from work related stress. The cost can be staggering, in 1995 it was calculated that around 6.5 million working days in the UK were lost due to stress related conditions with a cost to society of around 3.8 billion pounds. Some stress can be good and spur us on to perform and meet deadlines and it can vary enormously from day to day. Left unchecked though, or not recognized, and allowed to accumulate due to insufficient coping mechanism, stress can manifest itself physically, emotionally and psychologically. Des Brown are stated the importance of recognising and addressing stress in the workplace and the need for employees to obtain a work-homelife balance.

Key note speaker Lynn Holland, Occupational Health Consultant, gave an overview of the excellent Stress Management program that she led with her team at Good Hope Hospital NHS Trust. The Good Hope Hospital subsequently received the prestigious Health and Safety Beacon Award and has been praised by the HSE for its efforts in becoming a centre of excellence for Stress Management.