Stage Directions: Behind the Scenes, in response to concerns about the rising number of suicides and the prevalence of alcohol/substance misuse within the entertainment industry, is beginning work on a Mental Health and Suicide Prevention initiative and wants to get a sense of how many people in the industry are experiencing anxiety, depression, thoughts of suicide, problems with alcohol/substance misuse, or reactions to traumatic events.
3 comments:
This initiative within the entertainment industry is so important, so I am glad that steps are being taken to acknowledge the mental health and well-being of artists within the community. I know this survey is a first step in acknowledging the issues and seeing how deep the problem lies, so I think it will be even more interesting to see what the next steps will be after the statistics are pulled and how that is able to align with the goals of the initiative. I appreciate that one of the goals is reintegration, because that can be hard for people who are trying to adapt back to an environment that may have helped foster a poor mental well-being, but by encouraging reintegration in a more positive manner, lasting change can actually occur. It was surprising to see that the initiative is being co-developed by major names within the entertainment industry suck as IATSE and NBCUniversal, but if they are willing to step forward and have a voice at the table, I think that is a clear sign that an issue needs to be addressed.
This is a big step and an even bigger choice for this industry to be putting out a survey like this. It's been a relatively good year in terms of progression and diversity in the theatre industry and I do think that the results of this survey might prove to be more than what any person actually expected- and thats just something that has to happen. Time to time, we have to rethink what we're doing, rethink our practice, and rethink the attitude that we show towards our practices. The industry can be very exhausting, we put in hours that other industries would gasp at, we deal with egos, and a good portion of the work we do is often times done with that bow. All of this combined makes us ask ourselves, is it always really worth it, are we really getting the payoff that we're looking for. It's time that mental health starts to get taken seriously in a theatrical setting.
I am glad to see that concerns about mental health and suicide prevention are making their way into the mainstream theater scene. I feel like on the university level we are beginning to become pretty aware of the state of things and actually making strides to improve the culture of stress and anxiety that seems to prevail our world right now. Up until now, I have not seen anything like this in the professional world, so I am glad to know it is out there. It is so important that professionals in the industry understand where the next generation of technicians is coming from and that is a world full of anxiety and depression. I like that they are focusing on giving people the tools to recognize the early signs of these things because to me, that is the best place to start to control one’s mental health. For employers to be truly understanding of their employees and actually want to help them and make sure they have a good work/life balance it is imperative that they understand these issues thoroughly.
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