Mental health of arts professionals needs urgent action

There has been much recent attention on the rate of change among theatre artistic directors and speculation that it’s becoming an almost impossible job which needs much more support. But we shouldn’t just look at senior people, nor should we be focusing simply on the performing arts. 

This vividly came to mind when, as part of the preparation for our arts funding programme which gives creative opportunities to people living with mental health problems, I looked at some research from Queen's University Belfast, Changing Arts and Minds.

Undertaken in collaboration with Northern Ireland’s main mental health organisation Inspire, it involved nearly 600 creatives across range of artforms including visual artists and writers as well as musicians, dancers and actors.

The results were alarming

The likelihood of a mental health problem in the sector is three times that of the general population with the most common diagnosed disorders being anxiety (36%) and depression (32%).

A high proportion (60%) of respondents reported having had suicidal thoughts, with 37% having made a plan for suicide and 16% having made a suicide attempt in their lifetime.  Around 36% had visited their GP for a mental health problem in the past year. 

While most participants felt able to admit they had a mental health, alcohol or drug problem (63%), others were concerned about disclosure, citing workplace and personal factors, service provision and stigma as reasons for non-disclosure. 

And this research was conducted in 2018, before the pandemic.

Equity’s meta-review of the performing arts

Similar results were found in a meta-review, commissioned last year by Equity, looking at the experience of people in the performing arts using 111 academic studies.

Two academic papers in particular – on actors and ballet dancers – showed depression to be twice as likely in performers than the general population.

While 6% of the general population experience anxiety in any given week (McManus et al., 2016), in the sector, anxiety symptoms are much higher: 24% for dancers, 32% for opera singers, 52% for acting students, 60% for actors (Brodsky, 2001), and 90% for rock musicians.

Furthermore, 54% of musical theatre students report a level of depression or anxiety that met the rate for diagnosis of mental disorder.

Drivers in common

Analysis of the drivers for poor mental health in the Equity review had much in common with the Irish study with the most cited causes of stress and mental health concern being a culture of unstable work, antisocial working hours, time spent away from home and financial fears.

There was also a significant impact of job precarity – including erratic and short-term employment, low pay, work over- and underload alongside time away from loved ones. Negative relationships with people in positions of power in the workplace who were demanding, unsupportive or authoritarian also caused stress.

Moreover, both sets of research found that education providers rarely offer sufficient support to students, so they enter the workforce largely underprepared by their education to look after their psychological well-being. This is exacerbated by a lack of industry regulation of working conditions and mental health.

There is also much discussion, albeit inconclusive and speculative – among researchers as to whether there is something intrinsic to the nature of the creative process that can be stressful and self-critical, as well as sometimes therapeutic.

What support is available?

Despite this deeply worrying evidence, specific support for artists is very limited and tends to come through the British Association of Performance Arts Medicine (BAPAM). This excludes many other creatives working in the sector – for instance visual artists and writers. 

While larger organisations like the Royal Shakespeare Company often have their own Employment Assistance Programmes, many smaller ones don’t. Freelancers in particular, while vital, are often a very exposed part of the arts ecology. It is a complex picture and, although there are some other support providers, there is nothing else at the scale of BAPAM.

Our focus at the Baring Foundation focus is on participatory arts with people living with mental health problems. We have funded many projects for artists working in these areas, always encouraging applicants to include a budget line for supporting staff working on the project. We are also seeking to replicate the Queen's University study in another home nation.

But, I recognise the Baring initiative is limited and a lot more needs to be done.

Thoughts for the future

Firstly, there are deep structural issues that shouldn’t be overlooked. Of particular concern are: government underfunding of the arts, freelance precarity and continuing discrimination around gender, race and class.

Mental health needs to be addressed in national arts policies as is the case with the Department of Culture in Northern Ireland which, I believe, has a draft policy in progress. This must become a high priority for arts funders in future, especially for the four national arts councils.

All arts organisations need to draw up and implement mental health policies and training for all staff, as do institutions for arts education. The sector would do well to consider replicating innovations in other countries such as the national programme in Ireland and the national centre in Melbourne. 

In the last ten years, there have been great strides in de-stigmatising mental health problems and a number of high-profile artists like David Harewood have been bravely leading the way. 

But this has not been matched by policy and, still less, by the level of services required to meet the weight of mental health problems in the arts sector. This needs to change and soon.

David Cutler is Director at the Baring Foundation.
 www.baringfoundation.org.uk/
@Baring_Found