Coping with stress

What kinds of things can cause you stress? There are many things such as children, people, traffic, money, environment, debt, illness, time, family and responsibility.

You might be interested to know that:

• Work related stress accounted for 3.5 percent of injuries to males and 2.1 percent of injuries to women in the health and community services industry.
• In a recent audit of Queensland child care centres, 'mental stress' accounted for 4% of injuries to child care workers.
• Stress can be caused by many factors in the workplace, the main issue (in recent research) being noise levels in the centre.

Considering that stress is such a major issue in this industry, the following are important:

• Take your rest times and breaks as and when they're allocated. There's a good reason why you are given 'time out' - you will need it! Always take the time to sit back and relax, to clear your mind and rest your body.
• Let your supervisor know if you are feeling stressed by events or issues at work. Remember, the problem can't be resolved unless someone knows about it. Your supervisor will treat your concerns with respect and confidentiality.
• Be clear on what your job responsibilities are. Don't perform duties for which you are not trained, and focus firstly on your own duties and areas of responsibility before helping others
• If you feel that non-work related issues or events are causing you to lose focus at work and you feel stressed, address the problem You may like to speak to your supervisor about the way you're feeling, or seek counselling. Many people find it helpful to talk to a close friend or family member as a way of trying to deal with their stress.