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CWU's Health & Safety Policy Assistant, Jamie McGovern highlights stress awareness month In what is the biggest cause of workplace ill-health, and the subject of frequent debate amongst all CWU USRs, Jamie McGovern FRSPH MIIAI, CWU's new Health & Safety Policy Assistant Central Services, issues advise and support to ALL CWU Branches, including those within the T&FS constituency of the Union; in dealing with this major workplace risk. Readers of this website will know Jamie from his work done on MHFA training, Dog Awareness campaigns, and being a big part of the International Worker's Memorial Day events taking place each year on Merseyside at the memorial plaques on the Strand in Liverpool.
His LTB (063/25) is reproduced below, complete with links to documents that are available from this website's E-Library for those CWU USR's that may not get the LTB from their Branch office: Information is provided below to assist branches when undertaking any activities for Stress Awareness Month 2025. This LTB is shared as a communication in line with planned Health, Safety and Wellbeing Activities/Campaigns for 2025. Stress Awareness Month is an event that has been observed since 1992, it serves as a gateway to open conversations about stress, signpost people to the right support and help us all prioritise our mental health. It is promoted by numerous organisations and the NHS. The HSE published annual reporting statistics in November 2024 revealing that almost half of 1.7 million work-related ill health cases were identified as stress related, with over 776,000 workers suffering from ill-health related to stress, depression or anxiety with each person suffering taking an average of 15.8 days off work. The Health and Safety Executive have recently been funding research into work-related stress under the title Project OSCAR (Occupational Stress Consultation and Research). The Health and Safety Executive have commissioned Affinity Health at Work, the Institute of Employment Studies, the Institute of Occupational Medicine, and the Society of Occupational Medicine to lead the Occupational Stress Consultation and Research programme. This project aims to provide HSE with the evidence base on which to make policy decisions and underpin guidance on the practical actions that employers can take to prevent and mitigate work-related stress relative to three research areas.
The CWU are taking part in this research which aims to: • Explore how the evolving model of WRS (Work-Related Stress) labelling is received and its applicability across different contexts. • Identify how the Project OSCAR research findings can be made most useful to relevant groups. • Gather & use suggestions on how employers and health professionals can improve current practices and what needs to be in place to support this. This research will result in a final report in early 2026, with the aim to better identify what we know about effective interventions to prevent and reduce work-related stress, with a further sharing of new knowledge and good practice. Stress Risk Assessments Employers have a legal duty to protect employees from stress at work by undertaking stress risk assessments and acting on the findings. The CWU has national agreements with all the major employers on both individual and group stress risk assessments. Members suffering the effects of stress are encouraged to approach their Union Rep, Safety Rep, Mental Health First Aider or seek help, support and assistance without delay should they need help at work, or feel in need of crisis support. When undertaken correctly, Stress Risk Assessments can be an extremely effective tool to reduce personal stress on an individual level or workplace level. Shared for information and use are the following embedded documents (added to the LTB for this download): • CWU Preventing Stress flowchart. • CWU Armed forces veterans & Reservists Questionnaire. CWU Armed Forces These shared documents have been used to beneficial effect within the CWU Mental Health First Aiders networks over several years and have been updated in 2025. They are provided as information, to aid understanding of potential stressors & stress prevention routes. • The Stress Prevention flowchart is a simple easy to understand step by step guide guide for supporting with individual stress. Further information and useful workplace resources can be found by clicking on the links provided below. Stress and mental health at work – HSE Stress Awareness Month April 2025 | Mates in Mind
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As an Area Safety Rep and elected Officer of the CWU Branch Merseyside Amal, he instigated the campaign of getting all major buildings in the Merseyside area lit up in purple on 28th April annually. This grew to become a major event in the North West and has since been adopted by many trade unions across the country as part of the IWMD commemorations.