The Film & TV Charity has launched a new campaign called ‘Let’s Reset’ to tackle mental health challenges facing the industry. Launched for World Mental Health Day, the campaign is a year-long effort to combat the stigma around mental health and to encourage meaningful changes to working practices. It seeks to challenge common preconceptions, improve attitudes and behaviours across the industry. To achieve this end the charity is calling upon film and TV organisations to support and amplify a frank discussion about mental health issues.
The ‘Let’s Reset’ campaign asks senior industry leaders to make a public pledge to:
- Directly address underlying causes of poor mental health
- Encourage open discussion to challenge unhealthy behaviours
- Put specific support in place, including clear signposting of The Film and TV Charity’s growing suite of support services available to anybody working behind the scenes in film, TV, or cinema
- Highlight the work being done internally and build on work being done by other organisations including BECTU, BAFTA, BFI, Coalition for Change, ScreenSkills and beyond
Alex Pumfrey, CEO of The Film & TV Charity, said: “People in the film & TV industry are passionate about their craft, but their mental health is too often being strained to breaking point. Unhealthy working hours, bad practices, bullying, racism, harassment, and ableism are too common in an industry we all love, and all of us have a role to play in speaking up to create change.”
The campaign follows the charity’s 2020 Looking Glass Survey which found that 9 in 10 people working behind the scenes in film and TV had experienced a mental health problem. The evidence showed that working conditions, industry culture and lack of accessible support create conditions in which mental health and wellbeing suffer. A recent update to the survey indicated that only 10% of those working in the industry believe it is a mentally healthy place to work.
The campaign has the support of many leading bodies and organisations from across the industry, including Banijay, BBC, BFI, Channel 4, IMG, ITV, NBCUniversal, Prime Video, Sky, Sony Pictures, ViacomCBS, WarnerMedia and Disney.
Lee Jury, Senior Vice President of Studio Marketing, Disney EMEA, said: “We fully support the need for change and it’s fantastic to see the backing the Let’s Reset campaign is getting across the whole industry. Positive employee wellbeing and mental health is a huge priority for us at Disney but there’s so much more we can all do, so we encourage everyone to get behind this initiative, spread the word and to continue championing better mental health for all.”
The Film & TV Charity has created a new section of its website to help individuals access support and find resources. For more information please visit: https://filmtvcharity.org.uk/leading-change/letsreset/
