World Mental Health Day 10/10/2026 – H&S Bulletin October 2026
World Mental Health Day 10 October 2026: Reach out, recognise and respond
Ahead of World Mental Health Day on 10 October, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is urging employers to listen to their workers, identify the risks of work related stress and take practical action to prevent it.
Work related stress remains the leading cause of work related ill health in Great Britain. An estimated 964,000 workers experience work related stress, depression or anxiety, resulting in 22.1 million working days lost each year.
This year’s World Mental Health Day theme is ‘Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change’, highlighting the importance of listening to people’s first hand experiences. Reaching out and talking to workers about the pressures they face can help employers recognise risks and understand what needs to change.
However, listening alone is not enough. Employers have a legal duty to assess the risk of stress related ill health arising from work activities and to take appropriate measures to control that risk.
HSE’s Working Minds campaign (https://workright.campaign.gov.uk/working-minds/) provides free tools, guidance and online learning to help employers prevent work related stress through effective risk management. Employers can:
- Reach out: start conversations with your team using the Stress Talking Toolkit (https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/talking-toolkit.htm.)
- Recognise: identify the causes of stress, learn more about assessing risk and complete HSE’s free online learning module (https://workingminds.focusgames.com/).
- Respond: complete a risk assessment template and record the actions you’ll take to address the risks you’ve identified.
- Reflect: review what you already have in place and refresh your knowledge with HSE’s mini game (https://playhse.focusgames.com/)
- Make it routine: regularly check in on how people are coping.
Save the date: Stress Awareness Week runs from 2nd to the 6th November 2026.
If you would like help in implementing or further advice this, please get in touch.