Correction note (23 July 2026): this article has been revised. Earlier versions carried figures that did not survive a re-verification of our dataset; every number below is reproduced from the published sources named, and the full method sits on our mental health map page.
Here is an uncomfortable truth: the sector responsible for keeping your workforce healthy reports some of the highest work-related stress in the economy. The Health and Safety Executive's statistics for 2022/23 to 2024/25 put human health and social work activities at 2,830 cases of work-related stress, depression or anxiety per 100,000 workers, against an all-industry average of 2,040. Only public administration and defence reports a higher rate (3,470), with education third (2,620). Source: HSE, Work-related stress, depression or anxiety statistics in Great Britain, 2025, published 20 November 2025.
The professionals delivering your EAP, occupational health and mental health support largely come from that sector. We are asking people under above-average strain to be the guardians of everyone else's wellbeing.
The data doesn't lie - but it raises serious questions
HSE's published rates are prevalence figures from the Labour Force Survey, self-reported and non-clinical, and they are consistent year after year: health and social work sits significantly above the all-industry average for work-related stress, depression or anxiety. That is a system-level fact about the sector supplying your wellbeing services, not a comment on any individual's professionalism.
It raises a fair commercial question. When the workforce behind a service carries above-average strain, capacity, continuity and quality are the things that give first. That is worth understanding before you rely on the service for your own people.
Why healthcare workers are burning out faster than everyone else
The Job Demands-Resources framework offers a clean lens: healthcare roles combine exceptional demands, emotional labour, high stakes and understaffing with thin resources like autonomy and recovery time. The mismatch, demands high and resources low, is the classic recipe for strain, and it compounds: strain drives turnover, turnover raises the load on those who stay.
What this means for your wellbeing strategy
If you buy wellbeing services, ask harder questions of providers. How do they support their own people? What are their caseloads, response times and continuity of care really like? What is their staff turnover? A provider that measures demands and resources in its own workforce, and acts on what it finds, is far more likely to deliver a dependable service to yours.
Building resilience into your support chain
Do not depend on a single overloaded channel. Map every route to support your people already have, insurer helplines, added-value services, community options, alongside the EAP, and make each easy to find. Distributing the load is kinder to the people delivering support and more reliable for the people seeking it. Context matters here too: where your people live shapes what they are dealing with, and you can see that context area by area on our interactive mental health map of England.