Courtenay HR

Stress in the Public Sector

Sunday Times - 1 June 2003

Is a Stiff Upper Lip Making the Public Sector sick?

Stress in the workplace has become a catch-all phrase used to describe anything from petty annoyances to critical incidents, with 1997 being the first time ever that a personal injury court case for stress at work was filed. As a result of the increasing number of cases, a new crisis intervention method has been introduced to the UK - Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM), which is a form of psychological first aid.

Today stress in the workplace often goes beyond issues of low pay, staffing cuts and excessive working hours but is linked to violent physical attacks, fatal road traffic accidents, armed robbery, suicide or serious injuries - the result, traumatic stress.

With attacks on NHS staff alone having increased by 13% in recent years, a fact in itself which is under-reported by some 39%, and policemen, teachers and social workers being the victims of violent behaviour or assault, trauma is unfortunately an established part of life in the public sector. Unmanaged, trauma or “events which overwhelm a person’s or a group’s psychological coping mechanisms”, can cause lasting damage to morale, an increase in personal injury claims, staff turnover and early retirement applications. A significant decrease in productivity rates within an entire organisation can also be noted. Stress is known to be the second highest cause of sickness absenteeism and causes public sector employees alone to take 18.6 million days off a year at a cost of over £1 billion per annum.

Trauma is, therefore, an area on which HR departments in the public sector need to be advised on “how they can identify it, how it can be recognised as something other than day to day stress and what actions can be taken to combat it”. It should also be noted that whilst organisations may not be responsible for trauma which occurs outside the workplace, they will still suffer the consequences of incidents including illness of a child, road accidents and stalking, among others, and so should be just as vigilant when dealing with these cases.

CISM is recognised by the UN as the most widely used form of crisis intervention and has been embraced by public sector organisations across four continents – most notably perhaps by the New York Police Department both prior to and following 9/11. The success of the NYPD’s scheme is undeniable – between 1994 and 1995 26 police officers committed suicide. However, since CISM was introduced in 1995 in the form of POPPA (Police Organisation Providing Peer Assistance) there has been just 1 suicide a year.

Despite this, it is only very recently that CISM has begun to take off in the UK – this may well be attributable to the stiff upper lip and emotionless attitude that still dominates the higher echelons of management in both the public and private sectors in Britain. The British Critical Incident Stress Foundation (BCISF) was founded in 2002 to work with HR departments to establish psychological first aid as a priority to the same extent as physical first aid.

The BCISF advises that employers should be looking out for changes in performance such as mistakes, absenteeism, increased sick leave or increased alcohol consumption.

All of these traits are recognised symptoms of traumatic stress and taking the time to notice that someone is experiencing certain difficulties, is the first step in assisting them to recovery rather than leaving them to fend for themselves.