Report Finds Entertainment Workers More Likely To Commit Suicide

New research from Victoria University has found that the 25,000 Australians working in the country's entertainment industries tend to combat higher rates of mental illness and suicide, and are generally paid much less, than the rest of the population, it has been reported.

As found in Entertainment Assist's phase-one research report Passion, Pride & Pitfalls: Working In The Australian Entertainment Industry (Dec 2014), and condensed by Fairfax, the study found that industry employees operate within an "unhealthy, often divisive, competitive" and unsupportive environment, the myriad factors of which conspire to suggest "strong indicators these creative workers have a disproportionate rate of mental health issues".

Entertainment Assist is a non-profit organisation focused on aiding industry workers in need and, according to Fairfax, the business was driven to commission the study after a report from the Australian Road Crew Collective in 2012 that had identified 70 roadies "who had died prematurely".

Having secured funding from Melburnian philanthropic organisation The Pratt Foundation, Victoria University researchers Dr Julie van den Eynde, Professor Adrian Fisher and Associate Professor Christopher Sonn commenced the first phase of the study, which broke down industry employees into three distinct groups: performing artists and composers; support workers, including producers and directors; and equipment operators, including cinematographers, sound engineers, lighting technicians, roadies and so on.

"One of the things that came through pretty clearly in our work, through some very detailed and systematic interviews, was an unhealthy work environment throughout all aspects of the entertainment industry," Professor Fisher told Fairfax.

"There are clear patterns of suicide, of suicide ideation and thoughts, especially for performers whose careers are in decline, and as a result of the professional and financial pressures that exist. It is an area we are worried about and need to research further."

Aside from key problems permeating the industry — an overly critical culture, bullying, jealousy, physical pressures and so on — also probably not helping the situation is the comparatively abysmal pay on which entertainment workers subsist — in start contrast to the Aussie average of $78,800 a year, the study's three groups earned an average annual income of $44,600, $39,300, and $64,440 respectively.

The Pratt Foundation will provide funding for a second phase of research, which will enlarge the sample size to become the most extensive study of entertainment workers in the world, according to Fairfax, billed by Entertainment Assist general manager Susan Cooper as industry people's "one and only chance to make a difference and take part".

See the Entertainment Assist website for more information about the study.

If you or someone you know needs help, please contact Lifeline.