A leading health and safety organisation has joined a campaign tackling work-related stress in the agriculture sector, as 94% of young farmers say poor mental health is the biggest hidden danger.
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has become the latest partner on the Working Minds campaign, launched a year ago by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
The workplace regulator’s figures show of the 1.7m workers suffering from a work-related illness almost half (822,000) were suffering from stress, depression or anxiety.
The Working Minds campaign encourages farmers to start to tackle work-related stress and to talk to their staff and take steps to support employees with their mental health in the workplace.
The agriculture sector is one of the priority sectors that are being targeted by the campaign.
Figures by the Farm Safety Foundation show that for 94% of young farmers, poor mental health is the biggest hidden danger in farming today.
Working Minds has a series of partners who work with HSE to highlight issues around work-place stress and its impact on mental health, including the Farm Safety Foundation.
With IOSH now signed up it means the number of partners has more than doubled to 19 since the campaign was launched last year.
Liz Goodwill, of HSE said: “When we launched Working Minds a year ago, we were under no illusion that stress, anxiety and depression were on the rise in the UK.
"Our aim was to ensure psychosocial risks are treated the same as physical ones, that employers recognise their legal duty to prevent work-related stress to support good mental health in the workplace, and that they have the tools they need to achieve this.
“Now, at a time when we have major challenges facing the country – leading to stressors both inside and outside of the workplace – welcoming new partners extends our reach and helps get our messages to businesses."
Manager of the Farm Safety Foundation, Stephanie Berkeley added: “Physical and mental health need to have equal air-time because they’re so importantly linked.
"We know from our research that for 94% of young farmers poor mental health is the biggest hidden danger in farming today and that’s why we need to work together on the Working Minds campaign.”
