MATCHMAKER

×

Looking for a Public Relations Agency? Use our Free matching service to find the right agency for you.

User login

Why I’m telling a different story – the one of mental health in comms

 

I am not a mental health expert. I am just one comms person trying to continue the conversation about the mental health challenges we face in our industry after having my own eyes opened wide to this negative stigma.

Why out myself? It all started last year (2018) when I was approached to speak at a super public sector comms event, and when the organisers went through the line-up of best practice, awesome campaigns, and crisis tactics, I felt like there was only one thing I could talk honestly about. One thing that I had really learned over the past year that was absolutely imperative to good comms – but also was the one thing I had rarely heard being discussed openly: the mental health of comms professionals.

As a comms professional I bet you’ve written about it – mental health that is. Been asked to develop and deliver a campaign to tackle the stigma; a news release about your organisation signing a mental health pledge or pictures of staff undertaking mental health training. So, we can talk about mental health, write about it. But when it comes to telling our story, the story of the communications industry and some of the negative impact it’s having on our mental health, we seem pretty tongue tied.

Since last autumn I’ve taken every opportunity I can to re-write the narrative in our industry, smash the stigma and try to tell a very different kind of story; my story and hopefully, our story.

My story

About 18 months ago, I was diagnosed with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Like dozens of other colleagues, I was part of the many teams of people managing the aftermath Manchester Arena terror attack.

But we’re all different, and apparently, guilt is a real thing. It was for me; the guilt I had that I couldn’t do more, that we were working so hard but still couldn’t make things better, the guilt of going home when all you wanted to do was stay, the guilt that then six weeks later I had a new job opportunity and had to leave my team in, frankly, a slightly broken state.

It wasn’t until three months later one day, I was having a shower of all things, and I started uncontrollably crying, continually seeing the faces of my colleagues who had gone through so much in such tragic circumstances. This wasn’t me. I was a strong, resilient, loud, bubbly, determined, a happy person – normally. I should be able to control this, deal with this, suck it up and just crack on. That’s not what happened.

I was so lucky to get the help and support I needed to learn about mental health, understand what PTSD was and develop ways to overcome my challenges and return to the person I’m happiest being. And the beauty of mental health, like any injury, is that you can manage it, and that’s what I’ve been able to do.

While this was my first battle with my own mental health, I became intrigued and have learned I’m not the only one. In January (2019), the PRCA and PRWeek revealed 60 per cent of the PR and communications industry have suffered from or been diagnosed with mental ill health, and the CIPR State of the Profession 2019 results also point to a profession which is not only stressful to work in but fails to provide support to those living with a mental health condition. The data also suggests public relations plays an active role in damaging the mental health of practitioners.

The top causes of workplace stress for comms people are cited as heavy and unmanageable workloads, unrealistic deadlines or expectations from colleagues and our “always on” culture.

Furthermore, 50 per cent of respondents to PRCA’s survey said they felt under more stress currently compared to 12 months ago. We have a situation on our hands.

So, this is me, speaking for all those people I’ve chatted to in the past year, who maybe feel they can’t stand up right now and share their story quite yet.

I started listening to the stories of comms people and how the world we work in, can make them feel. These are some of their words:

“There’s a stigma – I didn’t want to say I felt stressed because comms people are can-do people. We’re the fixers.”

“I find it really hard to separate my work and my personal life online. It’s like I’m permanently switched on.”

“I bottled everything up until I exploded. I knew it wasn’t healthy, but everyone always expects comms to be the happy people!”

 “I’d dealt with much worse, so many times before. But for some reason, that case really got to me. I just sobbed and sobbed the whole way home. Reading words can be extremely powerful.”

“The symptoms I went to the doctor with were physical – a skin rash. But it was only when we sat down and started talking and I told her all what I’d been dealing with at work, she was the one who said it wasn’t just my skin that needed treating, but my mental health needed looking after.”

“Everyone is being asked to do more with less. Some days I feel like I will never get to the end of my to-do list and that makes me anxious. But I just want to make sure everything gets done so I do work long hours.”

 “But it’s just the way it is, isn’t it?” No. No, it’s not. It shouldn’t be, and it doesn’t have to be. Our mental health is no more, but equally no less important than that of any other employee in the workplace, but we do face different challenges.

It’s great we’re talking about mental health but there is a stigma - still. I’ve faced that stigma head on.

No one is expected to be superman – or woman – there is no 24/7 resilience in one individual. We’ve seen that when expert comms teams lean on each other and on mutual aid during major incidents and times of crisis.

Your organisation has a legal obligation under the Health and Safety at Work Act for your mental health. Risk assessments must be done to make sure you are OK. It really is a shame that some organisations don’t do this. It’s also a real shame that some leaders allow their teams to break – mentally and often physically – before bringing in a temporary fix.

But there are contributing factors to poor mental health that seem prevalent in the comms industry like our 24/7 online world, mobile devices muddying the waters, our deadline driven environment and the lack of respect and understanding for our profession.

However, there is some great stuff going on in organisations out there. Wellbeing walks, meditation and wellness sessions are being run as activities during core hours, organisations are employing peer advisors to support colleagues, managers are encouraged to log time spent on staff wellbeing activities, and some are even taking the bold step to ban lunchtime meetings and out of hours emails.

Finally, we must drive this if we want things to change for our profession. The challenge is having difficult conversations with bosses who are just used to you managing every social media enquiry out of hours (with no additional pay); who are used to you just turning up for the 11th day on the trot without needing some time off; who are used to you undeniably putting your work and the organisation in front of everything else you do. It’s hard, I know that, so we must encourage a culture of change and tell leaders what they can do to support us in being healthy, happy and productive people.

 

Someone always has to be the first – why shouldn’t it be you? As communicators, we are storytellers and I think it’s about time we started telling our story of mental health – do you?