Whilst Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc across the globe Remote Trauma have always kept a keen eye on the burgeoning issues surrounding mental health at work, particularly within the TV, broadcast and film industry.
In May 2020 the NHS predicted a 30% up-tick in mental health cases by the end of the year. Unfortunately it now appears this figure could be far worse than predicted.
The question for those of us working within TV and film is how can we best help or deal with those who may be struggling.
Since March, within the general populous, Covid-19 has forced many of us into isolation to some degree. This fact has put pressure on us as individuals to try to process and deal with the problem alone and therefore our natural resilience has been put under extraordinary pressure in order to cope day to day. Of course we will all deal with things slightly differently and so each of us will have a very nuanced approach to how we deal with the situation. This is why we need to be aware of and find time to think about each other, especially in the workplace and when working as a team or with contributors.
As we all find ourselves getting back into production environments, we should remember that while some of us have been working more of less continually, there are also those who are coming back to work for the first time in months. Research suggests that as many as 9 out of 10 people working within the film and TV industry have, at some point in their career, been at risk of, or have suffered from mental health difficulties.
As we emerge from this pandemic, more is know about the medical implications of those most affected by the illness. The same applies to mental health, we now know that Covid-19 exacerbates those suffering with anxiety, depression, OCD even Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Interestingly most of us can deal with both direct and indirect trauma and grief reasonably and in proportion to the true risk which remains relatively low although still significantly high in some areas.
In a production setting we have a duty of care to look out for others in our team and for our contributors. The stresses and strains we’re all dealing with can lead to various feelings of loss of control, especially when out and about or going back to work. As leaders in this field, we are able to offer your production a variety of help and training modules with the aim of giving those concerned the control they need to either cope better on the production or to give them the awareness to spot others who are potentially suffering in their team and be able to help them. Methods which will reduce stress, empower those involved and instil a sense or heightened creativity and purpose on any given project.
The advice for the senior teams working within the media industry is to have very clear guidelines, protocols and training in place in order to help each other. If we know what the guidance is on-set or on location, if we know what the expectations are and that the risks have been dealt with and thought about professionally – having very clear expectations will help relieve our stress and anxiety overall.
Remote Trauma not only provide comprehensive risk assessments to include Covid protocols, but also testing programmes and on-set Covid supervision but in terms of dealing with the mental health of our industry colleagues we offer mental health awareness training programmes which we recommend you consider.
Contact us today for Remote Trauma Mental Health awareness training.
