We all shine on: further study begins on mental health and wellbeing in Australia’s creative fields
National mental health and wellbeing advocacy Everymind, which in recent years helped Entertainment Assist identify and find solutions for mental health in Australia’s entertainment sector, casts its net wider in its latest research.
It has teamed with UnLtd and Never Not Creative to assess the situation of people working in the media, marketing and creative industries (and their attitudes to it) and compare them with those in the general public and business sector.
Dr Ross Tynan, mental health research lead at Everymind said: “All of our research focuses on contributing to the evidence base for the prevention of mental ill health, the prevention of suicide and the promotion of overall mental health and wellbeing.
“The results will be used to guide our work, and the work of others in establishing programs to improve the mental health in the workplace.”
The survey will:
- Determine the prevalence of mental ill-health in the media, marketing and creative industry and explore any differences that exist between media, marketing, creative, client-side and agency-side audiences; as well as comparisons with the population in general.
- Establish factors associated with mental ill-health in those who work in the media, marketing and creative industry, including the identification of any associated modifiable workplace characteristics.
- Identify the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs regarding mental health, mental illness, and help-seeking behaviours.
- Understand the current levels of stigma associated with discussing mental health.
The survey, which began this week HERE, will continue through to the end of September, with results out by end of the year.
“Through working with our charity partners such as batyr, we know what a critical issue mental ill-health is,” UnLtd CEO Chris Freel said.
“We know one in five Australians experience a mental illness every year but over half of those will not seek help.
“Sadly, suicide is still the biggest killer of young Australians aged 15-44.
“We also know from conversations with our corporate partners, that mental health is a topic that people in our industry can relate to and something that affects people across all levels.”
Entertainment Assist’s first study in October 2016 rang alarm bells in the entertainment industry when figures showed that its workers had double the rate of suicide attempts, ten times the rate of moderate to severe anxiety symptoms, five times the rate of depression symptoms and 2-3 times the rate of suicide ideation as the general public.
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