HSE’s annual statistics show stress, depression and anxiety make up almost half of work-related illnesses.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has today (23 November) published its annual statistics on work-related ill health and workplace injuries revealing a worrying trend around mental health.
The report shows the estimated number of workers in Great Britain suffering a work-related illness is 1.8 million with stress, depression, and anxiety make up around half of cases. The figures show there were an estimated 914,000 cases of work-related stress, depression, or anxiety in 2021/22 and an estimated 17 million working days were lost due to work-related stress, depression, or anxiety in 2021/22. This is over half of all working days lost due to work-related ill health.
The statistics also show the impact work-related ill health is having on Great Britain’s economic performance including 36.8 million working days being lost due to work-related ill health and non-fatal workplace injuries in 2021/22. In 2019/20, the annual economic cost of work-related injury and new cases of ill health (excluding long latency illnesses such as cancer) was £18.8 billion.
The figures also show that 123 workers were killed in work-related accidents in 2021/22 and a further 565,000 workers sustained a non-fatal injury.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact on the workplace. Of the 1.8 million suffering a work-related illness, an estimated 585,000 reported it was caused or made worse by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Around a quarter of these workers were in human health and social work. In addition, 123,000 workers suffering with COVID-19 believed they were exposed to the virus at work.
HSE’s Chief Executive, Sarah Albon, said the report highlighted the need for a greater focus on worker’s wellbeing, “Stress and poor mental health is the number one cause of work-related ill health. The effects of stress, depression, and anxiety can have a significant impact on an employee’s life and on their ability to perform their best at work. Britain is one of the safest places in the world to work but we need all employers to do more and take seriously their responsibilities to support good mental health at work.”
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I doubt incidence, just reporting – the old school would suck it up and soldier on, there is more awareness and acceptance of mental health issues and the younger “woke/snowflake” generation will complain about the slightest thing, we had one claim to be stressed because they had a day off sick and had two days worth of emails to read.
Simon, I am sure just sucking it up and soldiering on never did anyone any harm. Or maybe those people were still struggling inside but unable to seek help or guidance because of a general culture full of attitudes like yours. How many men have died of issues that could be resolved because they didn’t want to go to the doctors to seek help and thought they should just man up and deal with it. In addition the modern world contains pressures and problems affecting mental health that did not exist when you were younger. Such as the demand from companies that you are available digitally 24/7. They have your email and your phone details and many companies send work information outside of working hours. Add to that pressures from Social Media and a 24 hour news cycle and I wonder sometimes how any of us cope as well as we do. Maybe in future have some empathy for young workers / new starters making their way in an increasingly difficult and challenging workplace.
Well, interesting statistics and harsh reality to deal with. Leadership creating a culture of openness and coping mechanisms and open communication would help most definitely. I think it goes beyond just the traditional approach of hazard identification and risk assessment. It must be approached in a fresh and positive organizational culture strategy.
Nothing new here, the HSE was identifying 58% of DSE operators suffering presenteeism, loss of productivity yet carrying-on regardless of self-harming way back in 2007 review.
Their 2017 DSE Safety Alert expediently ignored the 2016 WHO ICD-10 and omitted the 2019 Review another two years and still not admitted that in order to qualify for FREE PPE display screen glasses you have to be diagnosed with a significant visual repetitive stress injury, Computer Vision Syndrome, blurred or worse double vision, myopic and asthenopic disease predictable in those who have not made custom “reasonable adjustments” preventing or mitigating Product Safety issues, eye-strain improving Accessibility.
https://icd.who.int/browse10/2016/en#/H53.1