MyGlasgow News

The University’s Health, Safety & Wellbeing team have launched a poster campaign to highlight the counselling services available to staff who feel they are becoming stressed by work. It coincides with the recent publication of a revised University policy on the management of stress in the workplace.

Selina Woolcott, Director of Health, Safety and Wellbeing, said: “Most people will experience stress at some point in their life. Sometimes this is due to difficult workplace pressures, sometimes to experiences at home, but more often than not it happens as a combination of factors that result in an individual becoming stressed. ‌

“As well as the policy document itself, which explains the formal responsibilities, roles and procedures in place for stress management, there are brief summarised guides for all employees, and for managers, to highlight the main points within the policy. There is also separate guidance for managers on how to conduct local stress risk assessments, with template risk assessment forms.”

The policy and the associated guidance can be found at:

http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/health/policyformanagingstressintheworkplace/

According to the Health and Safety Executive, the total number of cases of stress in the UK in 2011/12 was 428,000 (40%) out of a total of 1,073, 000 for all work-related illnesses. The HSE say the  occupations that reported the highest rates of total cases of work-related stress (three-year average) were health professionals (in particular nurses), teaching and educational professionals, and caring personal services. The main work activities attributed by respondents as causing their work-related stress, or making it worse, were work pressure, lack of managerial support and work-related violence and bullying.

Selina Woolcott said: “The University of Glasgow’s new policy provides information to help us recognise the signs of stress in ourselves, our colleagues and staff and to explain the mechanisms in place, here at the University, to help address and reduce stress at work.

“It gives details on the range of support services available to help employees who feel they are maybe becoming stressed by their work. This includes the independent Employee Assistance Programme, delivered by the company PPC. This service includes 24-hour access to telephone counselling, access to short term face-to-face counselling with experienced, qualified counsellors in the local area, as well as access to a wealth of self-help information sheets on a huge range of topics, available through PPC’s on-line services.”

Details on accessing all these free services are available at:

http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/health/staffcounselling/

Health, Safety and Wellbeing are particularly keen that individuals using the counselling service use the feedback system offered by PPC so that they can make sure the service meets the needs of staff.

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First published: 2 September 2013