MORE SUPPORT NEEDED FOR WORK-RELATED MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES

MORE SUPPORT NEEDED FOR WORK-RELATED MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES

All teachers should have an entitlement to mental health training, professional counselling or cognitive behaviour therapy when suffering work-related mental ill health, the Annual Conference of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union in the UK, has heard today.

Representatives at the Conference in Birmingham debated a motion calling for more support for teachers facing mental ill health issues.

Findings from the NASUWT’s annual Big Question survey show that over 86% of teachers have experienced increased workplace stress in the last year and 87% believe their jobs have negatively impacted on their health and wellbeing in the last 12 months.

Nearly two thirds of teachers (62%) believe their jobs have also adversely affected their mental health over the past year.

Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said:

“Teachers’ health and wellbeing is all too often a low priority for employers and Government.

“The stresses teachers are facing are having a serious adverse impact on their health and yet all too often the response is not support, but a punitive sickness management procedure which causes even more stress.

“The Government’s negative attitude to working people has created a climate in schools where anything goes and if there is an adverse impact on the health and wellbeing of teachers it is simply regarded as collateral damage.

“High quality education for children and young people cannot continue to be sustained by teachers whose physical and mental health is being broken.

“A coherent, tangible and sympathetic support strategy is required which includes access to mental health training and professional counselling.”