STRESS is costing the county’s public services millions of pounds in lost working days.

Figures show that Dorset’s councils, police and fire services have lost more than 30,000 working days to stress since 2011.

Dorset Constabulary has lost 12,086 working days due to stress related sickness since 2011.

Dorset Fire and Rescue Service has lost 1,917 days between 2012 and 2014.

And Dorset County Council lost 12,851 days between 2011 and 2014.

The organisations say it is not possible to calculate exactly how much illness equates to in monetary terms because of the huge difference in pay scales between those at the lower end of the ladder and those at the top.

But if figures were calculated using the average wage in Dorset, which was £24,927 in 2012, the overall cost to public services would be more than £2million.

Wednesday was National Stress Awareness Day and organisers say stress can have a number of trigger factors, but it can be the “adverse reaction to excessive pressures or other type of demand placed on them at work.”

A spokesman from Dorset Police said: “Work in any of the emergency services can at times be stressful. This is in addition to the everyday pressures experienced in normal life.

“Dorset Police recognises these potential causes of ill health and have support mechanisms in place which include, access to an occupational health unit, employee assistance programme and a welfare and counselling service.

“The past year has seen an improvement in levels of recorded absence for stress and overall we have seen a four per cent reduction in psychological absence for police officers.

“Overall days lost to sickness reduced by 13.7 per cent for police officers and by 15 per cent for police staff during 2014/15.”

A spokesman for DFRS said: “Staff are supported through a number of mechanisms, including the provision of fitness and wellbeing guidance, personalised stress action plans, access to a staff counsellor and occupational health."

Alison Crockett, human resources and organisational development service manager at Dorset County Council, said: “We have a variety of tools and approaches available to support managers and staff that will help to address this issue.

“These include a stress management framework which focuses on early support and intervention for those suffering from stress, whether work-related or due to personal issues.”