Stress Awareness Month: Promoting Mental Wellbeing and Resilience

Stress Awareness Month: Promoting Mental Wellbeing and Resilience

Stress Awareness Month is held annually during April. It is dedicated to raising awareness about stress, its causes, and the impact it can have on our health and wellbeing. It offers an opportunity for individuals and organisations across the UK to engage in important conversations about stress management, share resources, and encourage practices that promote mental resilience.

Throughout the month, various activities are organised to highlight ways to identify stress, understand its effects, and adopt healthy coping strategies. Aims include to empower people to seek support, and foster environments where mental health is prioritised. By taking part in Stress Awareness Month, we can all help create a culture that values self-care, open dialogue, and support for those facing challenges.

Relaxation UK supports Stress Awareness Month and advocates the use of relaxation and meditation techniques to manage and ameliorate personal symptoms of stress. However, research highlights that employers also need to address the causes of stress such as work overload and bullying. In the UK Stress, anxiety and depression cause more than half of work-related ill health. In 2024–25, an estimated 964,000 workers were affected, resulting in 22.1 million lost working days (HSE statistics, 2024–25).

The Chair of Relaxation UK, Professor Stephen Palmer, said: “Stress Awareness Month brings into focus the impact of stress on our health and wellbeing. It highlights what we, as individuals, can do to manage stress, such as using relaxation techniques and time management skills, whilst also emphasising that employers need to address the causes of stress at work.”

Professor Stephen Palmer PhD and Dr Siobhain O’Riordan PhD will be giving an online public lecture over Zoom on managing stress on Monday 27th April. (Information to follow shortly.)

This year the Stress Management Society is using #BeTheChange. Visit their website for more information. For posters and logos, visit their resources webpage.

Useful links

International Stress Management Association: https://isma.org.uk

The Health and Safety executive: https://workright.campaign.gov.uk/working-minds

HSE – Understanding the impact of stress at work: https://workright.campaign.gov.uk/understanding-the-impact-of-stress-at-work/

The Stress Management Society:  www.stress.org.uk/stress-awareness-month-2026

Hashtags

#StressAwarenessMonth #BeTheChange

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