Stress Awareness Day is on the 4 November. This year’s theme for National Stress Awareness Day is employee wellbeing. 1 in 6 British workers are affected by conditions like anxiety, depression and stress every year. This will be having a significant effect on your workplace and employees, but it can be improved. With the right knowledge and skills you can support your employees to stay well; saving you money and maintaining your productivity.

It makes sense to support employees who are struggling with mental health problems. Research shows that if supported, they will become more loyal, engaged and motivated, which can only be good for business.

To find out more and get your workplace involved in the Time to Change employment support campaign see the links below:

• Support for Managers
• Support for Employees
• Time to Change Employee Pledge
• Time to Change Employee Champions

Time to Change are also running the #smallthings campaign asking all workplaces to make small changes to make work more mental health friendly. To find out more about #smallthings follow the link.

If you are struggling with stress there is free NHS Counselling available in Kent and Medway, go to the following link and find a listing for your local area: www.liveitwell.org.uk/support-help/nhs-counselling-therapy-kent-medway . All the therapy listed here is free and there should be no waiting list.

We are also running the Six Ways to Wellbeing campaign encouraging people to take care of their mental health, to find out more about the campaign and how you can get involved go to: www.liveitwell.org.uk/ways-to-wellbeing/six-ways-to-wellbeing

To find out more about National Stress Awareness Day 2015 go to the ISMA website here.