April 6th is Sustainable Healthcare Day. This year, our focus is on stress and stress-related illnesses.
Stress is one of the great public health challenges of our time.
1 in 5 people in the UK feel stressed more days a month than they don’t (Source: CIPHR).
1 in 5 over 16s in the UK are stressed every single day.
A huge 63% of people in the UK are stressed at least weekly – up from just over a third 6 years ago.
(Source: www.forthwithlife.co.uk 2024)
Stress will always exist and affects most of us from time to time. However, with greater awareness, we can help to prevent it, or at least manage it and prevent it from becoming chronic, which can lead to a range of other mental health conditions. Stress is also linked to physical health conditions like heart disease, problems with our immune system, insomnia, and digestive problems. These conditions are harder to deal with, affect people’s lives, and cost the NHS huge amounts of money.
Stress-related illnesses have been estimated to cost the NHS over £11 billion, representing 6.2% of total health expenditure. This is a huge drain on public resources. (Source: CIGNA report 2020)
In addition, more than 3 million emergency department visits were driven by stress-related illness; more than 9 million outpatient attendances related to stress; over 5.5 million inpatient admissions were driven by stress-related illness; the largest proportion of stress-related healthcare expenditure, accounting for 23% of all inpatient spend; stress also accounted for a third of primary care expenditure (33%), at a cost of £1.8 billion and £238 million to government and the private sector, respectively.
Shiatsu Society members have an important role to play in addressing stress and helping to prevent chronic stress and stress related illnesses. With greater availability and use of complementary, traditional, and natural healthcare therapies such as Shiatsu, we can have a positive impact on peoples’ health and wellbeing, reduce susceptibility to stress, and facilitate coping with stress. This would reduce the need for people to access NHS services for stress-related illnesses, thereby saving public funds and increasing capacity.
If you suffer from stress, take this opportunity to take action. Visit our website to discover self-help tips and find your local practitioner. www.shiatsusociety.org