population, the suicide rate is higher for women than for men.14 Women who live in the UK but were born in India or West Africa have a 40% higher suicide risk than women born in the UK
Stress
Mental health disorders are common in the workforce. Each year, it is estimated that approximately 3 in every ten employees will have a mental health problem.15 In the UK in 1995, 2 million employees reported suffering from work-related illnesses which translates into about 20 million days lost through work related ill health. Musculoskeletal illness is the leading cause of days lost through work-related illness (11 million days) and stress, depression, and anxiety rank second (5 million days). A company of 1,000 employees can expect between 200 to 300 people to suffer from depression and anxiety per year and for 1 suicide to occur per decade.16
In the UK, the impact of job stress on the mental health of employees is considered one of the most important occupational health issues of the last decade. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has estimated that there are approximately 250,000 cases of stress or depression caused or aggravated by work each year. Stress is considered the second largest category of occupational ill health. 17
A number of studies on stress have been carried out in the UK with the following findings:18
*In a 1997 survey of trade union members, 81% of respondents considered stress to be a fairly or very serious problem for employees in their organisation. According to 72% of respondents, stress levels had worsened over the past year.
*In 1998 40% of 500 randomly selected members of the Institute of Directors regarded stress as a big problem in their organisation. Nearly 90% said that working practices were probably affecting stress levels, and 60% were of the opinion that responsibility for dealing with stress in the workplace was shared by employers and employees.
*A survey of Institute of Management members showed that 16% of managers had taken time off work because of stress during the last 12 months.
*A survey of 114 subscribers to Employment Review and Occupational Health Review revealed that 58% of respondents considered stress to be among their firm's top 3 health-at-work priorities. The survey predicted that, over the next 2 years, managing stress would be the fastest growing area in occupational health.
*According to the Health and Safety Executive's Survey of Self-reported Work-Related Illness, in 1995, 279,000 people in the UK believed that they were suffering from work-related stress, anxiety, or depression. A further 253,000 people suffered from an illness they believed to be caused by work-related stress.
