{"id":25659,"date":"2026-06-22T01:35:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T01:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/22\/the-growing-push-for-better-mental-health-support-across-the-arts-variety-australia\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T01:35:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T01:35:40","slug":"the-growing-push-for-better-mental-health-support-across-the-arts-variety-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/22\/the-growing-push-for-better-mental-health-support-across-the-arts-variety-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"The Growing Push for Better Mental Health Support Across the Arts – Variety Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years, conversations around wellbeing in creative industries have centred on resilience: push through the late nights, absorb instability, keep creating. But as the cost-of-living crisis continues and the threat of AI looms ominously over the shoulders of all creatives, the industry is facing a severe mental health crisis.
Workers across the creative arts are hitting a breaking point and speaking more openly about the realities behind the scenes. From burnout to irregular income, the pressure to remain visible and the challenge of sustaining a creative life over the long term leave workers feeling overlooked.
Riley Nelson* has experienced this first-hand. The film and television post-producer was out of work for over six months in 2025, creating a mental health battle that nearly saw them leave the industry altogether.
\u201cI work on project-to-project contracts. This means work comes in six-week to six-month bursts. The money is good when the work is there, but then there are periods where nothing is happening.\u201d
As a result, Riley can\u2019t save money as the quieter months force them to chip into their savings to keep their head above water, all whilst looking for any sort of casual work to fill in the gaps. Their confidence and mental health pay the price, and the existential reality of working in the creative industry becomes starker with each passing year.
\u201cI\u2019m currently weighing up my career options. The future of screen doesn\u2019t look all that stable.\u201d
\"Getty
Get your daily dose of everything happening in music, film and TV in Australia and abroad.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Support Act, Australia\u2019s leading mental health organisation for creative workers, surveyed 1, 518 workers across the arts. Its results<\/a>\u00a0painted a stark picture of the industry\u2019s current state.
Almost a fifth (19.6%) of all respondents reported a total annual income that sits below the poverty line for a single working person. The cost of living was cited as the biggest challenge of working in the sector, followed by 56.5% of people saying low income in the industry was impacting them the most.
Burnout and fatigue, job insecurity, and a lack of opportunities due to venue closures and\u00a0festival cancellations\u00a0were also cited as challenges facing workers. Over half of the survey participants (53.5%) reported high or very high levels of psychological distress.
Support Act has historically been known for its work within Australia\u2019s music industry, but its mental health programs and\u00a0support services now extend across a broader creative ecosystem. It reflects the reality that burnout, financial pressure, and job sustainability aren\u2019t confined to one single sector of the creative industry.
Its range of services includes free and confidential mental health support through the national\u00a0Wellbeing Helpline<\/a>, alongside training and workshops designed specifically for the environments creative workers operate in.\u00a0Support Act\u2019s goal is to help creatives (and creative workplaces) stay healthy, safe, and sustainable.
As job cuts, wage stagnation and the threat of Australia becoming an \u201cartless country<\/a>\u201d persist, mental health is becoming less of an individual conversation and more of a collective response to the pressure. It\u2019s one that, if not addressed soon, will define the future of Australia\u2019s creative industries and, as a result, our place on the cultural world stage.
Get support from\u00a0Support Act<\/a>.<\/em>
*Name changed for anonymity<\/em>
The Business of Entertainment<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years, conversations around wellbeing in creative industries have centred on resilience: push through the late nights, absorb instability, keep creating. But as the cost-of-living crisis continues and the threat of AI looms ominously over the shoulders of all creatives, the industry is facing a severe mental health crisis.Workers across the creative arts are hitting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}