Spike in stress and mental health leave costs Victoria over $260m

Stress is a multi-billion dollar problem, and it’s getting worse.

You can almost say we have a stress epidemic.

We’re seeing at all levels of life: the school yard, business, bureaucracy, and particularly first responders like police.

Figures announced on Tuesday show over 72,000 Victoria Police shifts were lost due to injury and mental stress in 2016-17 – an 88% increase over two years.

In Victoria, Worksafe received 3036 mental injury claims in 2016. That costs Victoria $262 million.

The NSW workplace regulator granted 2808 stress and mental health claims. 1589 mental injury claims were granted in Queensland.

Small Business Ombudsman and beyondblue board member Kate Carnell told Neil Mitchell it’s become more acceptable to take care of your mental health.

“Our workplaces are significantly more stressful than in the past,” Ms Carnell said.

“We’re attempting to do more with less the whole time. More people are on shift work.”

Ms Carnell said smartphones mean we never get to leave work at work.

Click PLAY above for the full interview