NABS Q1 2022 stats reveal mounting mental health crisis in advertising and media
NABS announce Q1 2022 stats
- Calls to NABS relating to mental health jump by 15% YOY to make up 25% of all calls
- NABS Advice Line receives nearly twice as many calls YOY (466 in 2022 vs 252 in 2021)
- Confidence and building meaningful careers are key concerns among NABS coaching clients
Mental health challenges have increased significantly amongst advertising and media professionals during Q1 2022.
The alarming news is revealed in quarterly statistics released today by NABS, the wellbeing charity for the advertising and media industry.
Reasons for calls to the NABS Advice Line
Emotional support is the number one reason for calling NABS, accounting for almost half of total calls. Mental health accounts for 59% of these emotional support calls, with callers sharing significant concerns as they adapt to living with COVID and realising the longer-term impact of the last two years on their state of mind.
Calls to NABS relating to mental health are up by 15% on both 2021 and 2020 figures, revealing a worrying upward trend. Mental health concerns now account for a quarter of all calls.
Meanwhile calls relating to bereavement have jumped to 14% from 2% last year as people begin to process any losses that they experienced during the pandemic.
Calls to the NABS Advice Line have increased 20% YOY overall. The second and third reasons for contacting NABS are financial support (29%) and redundancy, which makes up 67% of all digital enquiries across NABS’ redundancy tool and Support Bot.
NABS therapy referrals have gone up by 50% YOY as individuals seek urgent and structured support with their wellbeing.
Our stats clearly reveal that the pandemic has left its mark on the mental health of people across our industry. Our industry cannot ignore this upward trend. NABS is here to support everybody who is facing challenges with their wellbeing; if you’re struggling, please call us for help, whatever your issue.
Diana Tickell, CEO, NABS, who steps down from her role at the end of this month
Key themes arising from NABS masterclasses (group coaching sessions) are:
- Resilience: building back up post-pandemic; managing home life and workload boundaries.
- Confidence: Overcoming doubt of skills (often referenced as impostor syndrome) to see the bigger picture; how to build rapport with and influence with senior clients; communication in meetings/presentations; clarity on strengths; visibility; profile-building.
- Building rapport when starting roles in a hybrid or WFH set-up.
Key themes arising from NABS one-to-one coaching sessions are:
- Setting up for success in new roles.
- Navigating promotions, pay rises and feeling valued.
- How to build a career in which one feels present, authentic and empowered – a consequence of people reflecting during the pandemic on wanting more happiness and challenge from their roles.
- Confidence-building following redundancy or working from home.
Find out how NABS can help you.
Back to blogMany people are contacting us with concerns relating to redundancy, confidence and career improvement following the last two years. As well as coaching, NABS can also provide financial grants to those wishing to upskill so do get in touch to see if you might be eligible.
Uzma Afridi, head of careers, NABS