Work related stress - Video interviews - Tony’s Story

This video looks at the story of someone with work-related stress, and how they dealt with it and were supported in the workplace.

Stress Awareness Month

Stress Awareness Month takes place every April and has since it first launched in 1992. Throughout this period of time, teams of experts aim to increase public awareness about stress. This includes highlighting the causes of stress, the negative effects stress can have on the mind and body, and how to relieve stress.

Most people will experience stress at some point in their life, but constant or extreme stress is bad for both the mind and body. Stress can be caused by a sudden traumatic event or even just the expectations of daily life.

There are many ways to minimize stress such as maintaining a healthy lifestyle, talking about your feelings, and dedicating time to relaxing. If you are suffering from stress, you can find help and resources on the internet, or you can seek advice from a healthcare professional.

If left unchecked, stress can be deadly — in fact, stress is often referred to as the “silent killer” because although its effects are not immediately apparent, it can lead to a number of serious health problems such as high blood pressure and heart disease. This is why Stress Awareness Month is important — it informs people about stress and provides them with the tools and resources to manage it.

Useful websites and organisations

• NHS mood self-assessment quiz
• Stressbusting website – for information about stress and techniques for coping
• The Be Mindful website – for guidance on mindfulness
• Mind’s Infoline (0300 123 3393/info@mind.org.uk) – for information on support groups and mental health services in your local area
• Health Assured’s 4 week programme on sleep

Today is transday of visibility

⚧  Check out UNISON's great guide to being a good trans ally. It all comes down to listening to trans people, challenging transphobia, and being a good person!

Click for more info

Tips for being a good trans ally In general

• Speak up for trans people and trans equality and against transphobia.

• Speak up when there are trans people present. Don’t leave it to trans people to defend trans equality.

• Speak up when there are no trans people present. Transphobia is always wrong and shouldn’t be ignored.

• Do this in meetings, on social media, with family and friends.

• Don’t assume you know who is trans or who is affected by anti-trans discrimination. There may be people with a trans history in your branch or workplace who are now just living their lives. Other colleagues may have trans family members.

• Transphobia is no laughing matter. It’s just as important to challenge it when it is presented in a jokey way.

Thanks to UNISON members, vital public services are still running

The snow and difficult weather conditions of the past week have been challenging for everyone. We’re not a country that is best suited to this kind of weather at the best of times – especially not in March.

However, what has been abundantly clear once again in recent days is how remarkable public service workers are. Winter weather makes it harder to support those who need help in our communities – especially in rural and remote areas – but UNISON members have gone above and beyond the call of duty to make sure that help still arrives.

Thanks to UNISON members, vital public services are still running.

So thank you to the homecare worker, who travels miles from house to house ensuring that the elderly and the vulnerable are safe, warm and cared for – a lifeline for so many, even when its hazardous on the roads.

Thanks to the NHS staff who fight their way into work to make sure our health service keeps running during the cold snap. And to the ambulance staff who carry on undeterred to make sure that an emergency in the snow receives the same care that all emergencies do.

Thanks to those local authority staff, including those out late and night and early in the morning gritting the roads so that the country keeps moving even when the snow is piling up.

Thanks to the school staff, the caretakers keeping schools open and safe where they can, and those managing the process of school closures where they’re unavoidable.

Thank you to all public servants working through the cold and the snow to support everyone who needs you. You are the pride of our union, our communities and our country.

You make all of us proud of our union.

8 Reasons to love public service staff.

Did you every wonder where UNISON’s colours came from?

Does the colour scheme on the medal look familiar to you? Do you know what it is?  Well, it is actually a hunger strike medal from the women’s suffrage movement and represents the colours of the suffragettes.   In 1908 the women’s Social and Political UNISON or WSPU adopted the colour scheme of purple, white and green which would distinguish them in the political movement. Emmelin Pethick-Lawrence, editor of the weekly newspaper Votes For Women wrote “Purple as everyone knows is the royal colour, white stands for purity in private and public life and green is the colour of hope and the emblem of spring.”

UNISON lottery

🤑UNISON members: we've relaunched the UNISON lottery, giving you a chance to win up to a grand and help your fellow members at the same time 👍