Stress Awareness Month 2025
Published: 1st April 2025
Lead with love empowers us to approach ourselves and others with kindness, compassion, and acceptance—no matter the challenges we face.
We understand that working in healthcare can be incredibly rewarding, but it also comes with unique challenges and stressors. Statistics highlight the extent of stress among resident doctors:
52% of resident doctors describe their work as emotionally exhausting *
21% are at risk of burnout *
58% experience anxiety or depression **
It’s important to take time to identify our triggers and find ways to cope and manage these challenges. The Stress Management Society has compiled free resources focused on conversations around mental health, recognizing signs of stress, and moving from distress to de-stress.
As always, we encourage you to connect with our Wellbeing team to see how they can support your health, work and wellbeing needs. Click here to visit our health, work and wellbeing hub.
We’ve rounded up the best support groups, confidential helplines and mental health services for #StressAwarenessMonth in response to the latest statistics, which reveal the effect of stress on resident doctors.
Additional resources:
Stress Awareness Month 2025 resource page
Stress.org.uk - Stress Awareness Month 2025 resource page
Practitioner Health Service - provides compassionate and confidential support for anyone facing mental health challenges. And the best part? It's completely free! The Practitioner Health Service offers tailored assistance to individuals struggling with stress, depression, addiction, and other mental health issues.
http://www.practitionerhealth.nhs.uk/
NHS Employers - this page details the different types of stress, and how stress can manifest, as well as providing top tips to support NHS colleagues.
Supporting our NHS people experiencing stress | NHS Employers
You OK Doc - work with a team of 30 ambassadors of nurses and doctors to help them provide a service where people work. They are also there to make talking about mental health normal and to advocate for it.
They use evidence-based methods to provide practical help to the medical community. They collaborate with others to make resources that help people and organisations learn about mental health, using resources such as podcasts, webinars, information packs, and social media content.
A virtual support group led by therapists offers one-hour-long sessions covering topics like burnout, grief, and self-care. Each group has a maximum of 10 doctors and can be delivered to NHS trusts and individual doctors.
* Source: The GMC National training survey 2024 results – click here
** Source: You okay doc – youokaydoc.org.uk