Prompted By Actor Suicides, ArtsMinds Offers Mental Health Support For Creatives

The new website ArtsMinds, offering support to people in the creative industries who are dealing with mental health issues, is a collaborative initiative created by BAPAM (British Association of Performing Arts Medicine), Equity, Spotlight and The Stage when it became alarmingly clear that a readily available resource center was needed.

"ArtsMinds was developed following the suicides of three actors within a relatively short space of time," says Catherine Comerford, chairwoman of The Stage. "One longstanding member of the acting profession questioned whether we, along with Equity and Spotlight could not do something between us to help."

The Stage reports that a survey taken by 5,000 people in the creative arts revealed that 20% had sought help for mental health issues and that 46% describe the state of their mental health to be either poor or average.

Comerford calls the results a sign of "just how destructive the audition knock-backs, low/no pay, and shortage of work can be".

The home page of the website (artsminds.co.uk) begins with six sections: health, career, relationships, finance, help for others and a section for those who feel they are in immediate danger.

Each section begins with an introduction specified to the arts community, leading to information on help resources.

For example, the health section specifies how actors may get into the habit of drinking alcohol to combat pre-performance stress, and again as a way to unwind afterwards, before offering a questionnaire to help analyze a user's drinking habits.

The relationships section describes the widespread instances of bullying that take place in the entertainment profession, and offers a link to Equity's bullying guidelines.

Click here for the full article.