HSENI supports Mental Health Awareness Week as a key part of part its workplace health campaign

Date published: 13 May 2025

Site topics: Workplace Health, Mental well-being at work

The Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) is encouraging employers and employees to take part in this week’s Mental Health Awareness Week (12-18 May) to ensure work-related mental health issues do not go unspoken in the workplace.

Deputy Chief Executive of HSENI, Nicola Monson said it’s never been more important to take action to ensure the work-related mental health of our employees is protected and supported. While good work is good for you and your mental health, prolonged workplace stress is not.

“Figures for Northern Ireland shockingly indicate that 15,000 people are estimated to have suffered from stress, depression, or anxiety caused or made worse by work in 2023/24, with some 320,000 days estimated to have been lost due to work-related stress, depression, or anxiety in the same year.

“Our mental health is as important as our physical health, yet we can often be reluctant to talk about it when work is negatively impacting it. Creating a culture where colleagues can talk about their workplace mental health is not only good practice - it’s very important.

“We are delighted to support and promote Mental Health Awareness Week and use it as an opportunity to encourage everyone to stop and think about what they are doing to prevent work-related stress and where possible, to also look at what can be done to improve the wellbeing of our colleagues and ourselves in the workplace,” Nicola continued.

“Crucially, ill-health prevention must come before health promotion in the workplace, with employers carrying out appropriate risk assessments so they can identify and reduce work-related ill-health risks. The need to take action has never been more important, thereby helping to ensure our employees’ mental health is protected in their work.

“This will also help reduce the significant cost to businesses currently associated with absenteeism and presenteeism.

“We need to remove the stigma and normalise work-related conversations around depression, stress or anxiety. We need to listen and look at where the stresses are occurring in our workplaces and what we can do about them. Structured models such as “The Stress Management standards” are a good place to start and can be used to assist employers in carrying out risk assessments,” Nicola added.

Work-related mental wellbeing is a key theme in HSENI’s current workplace health campaign. Throughout the year-long campaign, Inspectors and Mental-Wellbeing at Work Advisors will be sharing practical resources and advice to employers across all sectors to help raise awareness of mental well-being at work.

For resources and more information visit the following pages:

Notes to editors :

The HSENI Workplace Health Campaign for 2025/26 focuses on:

Occupational lung diseases - Occupational lung disease | Health and Safety Executive
Occupational cancers- Occupational cancers | Health and Safety Executive
Work-related mental wellbeing - Mental well-being at work | Health and Safety Executive
Musculoskeletal disorders- Musculoskeletal Disorders | Health and Safety Executive

For more information www.hseni.gov.uk/topics/workplace-health
For media enquiries please contact HSENI Press Office on 028 9024 3249 or email media@hseni.gov.uk
For out of office hours please contact the Duty Press officer on 028 9037 8110.