Samaritans

Samaritans is a charity that provides emotional support 24/7 every day of the year for anyone needing help, whatever their anxiety, worry or fear - including those suffering from suicidal thoughts. Samaritans receives a phone call for help every six seconds, which equates to 5 million calls a year. The charity has been in existence for 54 years and was the world's first phone help-line. It has helped people of all the ages from six through to ninety. As a result of extensive research into the causes of stress and its consequences, the charity has established the WorkLife training programme to help tackle stress in the workplace. It is designed to help managers and their teams identify stress and give them the skills and confidence to deal with challenging situations at work. It is therefore considered fitting that Samaritans is the charity partner for Employee Benefits Awards.

Stress in the workplace is frequently cited as the number one issue affecting employee productivity. Thirteen million working days are lost to stress, depression and anxiety in the UK each year, which results in a staggering financial loss of £3.7 billion, according to the Health and Safety Executive. In addition, half of Britons state that they are more stressed-out than five years ago and 17% claim to be stressed on a daily basis, according to the Stressed Out survey, which was commissioned by Samaritans in February 2007. Given these statistics, the WorkLife programme is certainly helping to address a need for work-based support. The issue of stress is so great that Samaritans has devised Stress Down Day, which promotes the need to relax and reduce stress levels as well as raise awareness of the problems that anxiety can cause.

Stress Down Day is on Friday 1st February

Please give generously to Samaritans when submitting your entry.