Workplace stress presentations on the rise: Poll

‘A perfect storm’ of circumstances has led to a spike in patients presenting to their GPs in response to workplace-related mental health concerns, says an RACGP expert.
 
In a recent newsGP poll, 82% of GPs said they had seen an increase over the past two years in patients seeking medical certificates to take time off for depression, stress or anxiety due to workplace issues.
 
Dr Karen Spielman, Chair of RACGP Specific Interests Psychological Medicine, is ‘not at all surprised’ by the poll results.
 
She believes the results reflect health system failures putting additional strain on GPs, a lack of mental health services, and the impact of rising rates and an increased awareness of mental health conditions.
 
‘Firstly, the system is so broken that GPs are bearing the brunt of everything, it’s not just workplace stress,’ Dr Spielman told newsGP.
 
‘Secondly, there’s a big increase in depression and anxiety overall in the community, and there’s also fewer services available for people to go to.’
 
The poll result also adds weight to the RACGP’s 2025 Health of the Nation report, which shows a heavy reliance on general practice for mental health support in the community.
 
The report reveals 71% of GPs said mental health is the top reason for patient visits, with anxiety, depression and stress the main presentations, in that order.
 
This is a 10% increase since the first report was released in 2017, and a result Dr Spielman says is ‘extraordinary’.
 
‘But I’m not at all surprised. And I think it’s probably a perfect storm of things,’ she said.
 
Dr Spielman believes increased awareness of anxiety and depression may also be fuelling increasing presentations to GPs, though a clinical diagnosis may not always follow.
 
‘There is a little bit of that idea of concept creep; people are more aware of stuff that maybe in the past wouldn’t get diagnosed, or wouldn’t be called depression or anxiety,’ she said.
 
‘People are more aware, which is a fantastic thing. That’s good, because we’re picking up more cases of people who definitely need help, but that will be mixed with some people who may be over-diagnosed or over self-presenting.’
 
Data from the Fair Work Commission shows a significant increase in workers’ claims against employers.
 
The total number of lodgements in the 2023–24 financial year was 40,190, a 27% increase from 2022–23, and the highest number of lodgements since the current national workplace relations system began in 2010.
 
Dr Spielman believes workplaces ‘are more toxic’, fuelling the spike in presentations to GPs for work certificates, as well as a rise in presenteeism, in which people work while unwell.
 
‘There’s so much financial distress out there, there’s so much pressure in workplaces and employment insecurity,’ she said.
 
‘And people are also going to work unwell because of the stress. Maybe you should have taken some time off, but you keep pushing on because of all the pressures in the workplace. I think people are probably manifesting more distress because of that as well.’
 
While there is usually a GP report involved in any Fair Work claim, of course not all presentations to GPs end up in Fair Work, said Dr Spielman.
 
‘Just thinking of the medical certificates I’ve written recently, they haven’t gone to Fair Work. They’re just, “could I have time off because this is unsustainable”,’ she said.
 
One case that did end up in Fair Work was that of Charlotte (not her real name), who began seeing a GP in 2025 for support through ‘a dark period of mental health’ she says was caused by her workplace.
 
‘If you asked me what a GP does nine months ago, I would have had no idea, maybe just a doctor,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘Today I would not know how I would have survived without one.
 
‘They offered me positive support to guide me through a health plan, for both my mind and body, and letters to the Fair Work Commission, often in their own time.
 
‘They suggested a psychologist and exercise as well as prescription treatment for severe anxiety, and helped provide the correct information and certificates to receive sickness benefits.’
 
Charlotte says her GP ‘remains a very important part’ of her life and she still sees them regularly.
 
‘Having someone that knows you as a whole person offered me so much more reassurance on my wellness journey,’ she said.
 
‘Today I am happy and healthy. I am able to work again and feel so much better for her crucial advice and guidance.’
 
Dr Spielman is gratified to hear stories such as Charlotte’s that demonstrate ‘the good news stories about how GPs are very caring and will go the extra mile to support their patients’.
 
‘That’s so nice, because we can see what sort of impact that makes on our patients when they get the support they need and deserve – they get better,’ she said.
 
‘Those stories really need to be told, because a lot of us do those sorts of things, and sometimes it gets appreciated and sometimes it doesn’t.
 
‘But people don’t realise that’s in our own time. There’s no Medicare rebate.
 
‘That conversation really needs to be had when there are GPs leaving in droves because they’re feeling burnt out.’
 
Dr Spielman backs the RACGP’s call for longer appointments, and the college’s own clinical guidelines for the diagnosis and management of work-related mental health conditions.
 
‘The RACGP has lots of training for GPs on Focussed Psychological Strategies,’ she said. ‘We’ve got huge capacity to help our patients before we refer.’
 
For GPs, Dr Spielman says one of her ‘go-tos’ for patients is The Healthy Mind Platter by American psychiatrist Dr Dan Siegel, which provides strategies for incorporating essential mental health activities – such as sleep, physical activity and connection – into daily life.
 
‘These are things that every GP can access really quickly to help manage psychological distress, to help ground and manage,’ she said.
 
‘If we can support our patients to do basic things first, we can go a long way towards containing the distress and looking at better solutions and helping them to problem solve.’
 
Dr Spielman would like to see workplaces take some ‘simple’ measures to alleviate the risk of mental health stress for their employees, and, in turn, pressure on the GP workforce, such as not requiring medical certificates for a one or two-day absence.
 
‘Simple strategies like allowing their workers time off to have medical appointments, that sort of simple stuff, would go a long way towards addressing it,’ she said.
 
‘It doesn’t have to be yoga classes in every lunch break or anything like that; just allowing people to take one or two days off without having to go to the doctor to get a medical certificate.
 
‘And it’s so hard to access us, because we’re so run off our feet. We don’t want to be doing medical certificates for people to take a couple of days off; it’s those sorts of things that make it harder for people to look after themselves.’
 
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